


The Collapse of Professor Avery Hale

by Malice_and_Macarons



Series: Monochrome Universe [6]
Category: DCU
Genre: Avery lacks chill, Batman is done with these kids, Bullying, Canon-Typical Violence, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Terrorism, Jonathan lacks chill, Manipulation, Mental Breakdown, Mild Language, Mind Games, Multi, Other, Past Child Abuse, Philosophy, Psychological Trauma, Psychological Warfare, Slow Burn, entry level philosphy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-05
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-19 16:32:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 28,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8217146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Malice_and_Macarons/pseuds/Malice_and_Macarons
Summary: Five years was it all it took after encountering Jonathan Crane for the first time to completely undo professor Avery Hale's mind. Only five years for them to end up in the exact same place.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> In regards to the rest of the Monochrome Universe this takes place before most of the stories and follows into the present. It doesn't drastically effect most of them.

Gotham University was a building like any other in the city. Wracked with misfortune and home to one or two of its own demons.

Throw a stone in Gotham and more likely than not you'd find yourself within striking distance of some type of ghost tale or another. Hospitals and places of knowledge were usually the worst offenders. It seemed that no matter what concoction of chemicals fell onto some poor soul within Gotham it would result in much the same. Different effects maybe but the same end result – another lunatic to add to the ever growing list. The city university was not exempt from these tragedies, if anything it was exemplary example.

Perhaps the most notorious horror story to originate within its walls was one Jonathan Crane, or as the media knew him best – The Scarecrow.

Brilliant as he was, there were simply some men born with a darkness inside of them that grew and twisted out of control given the correct nurturing. Call it what they may, evil, insanity, a broken soul – all in Gotham could agree that a man such as the Scarecrow was best kept away from the rest of society. For their own safety of course.

Yes, they'd call for the man's imprisonment. For his execution when the fear grew too much to control and people's compassion left them in favour of self preservation. Yes, in a second they would scream for something to be done about the single madman – because he was easy. Scarecrow, like so many of Gotham's costumed rogues, was an easy pick. There was nothing grey about his situation beyond the occasional moment of humanity.

In a sense the Gotham Rogues were a scapegoat for true evil. For the true horrors people suffered daily.

For it was all well and good to point at the one in the costume, the one that stuck out and acted outside of given parameters of society, and call that evil. It was easy to look beyond their own circle, beyond their own people and call blame to an outside force. An outsider, a stranger – a difference.

It was much harder to look inside.

Avery Hale knew all too well how difficult it could be to peer past one's own skin and find something detestable inside. People were afraid to look too close, to see themselves for their faults and graces alike. Similarly it was near impossible to look at ones own people and recognize blame may lay with them also.

No, no. It was easier to simple name another group, another person who was different to themselves and call it evil.

History always showed these patterns. Divide, dehumanize and finally demonize. Avery had read about it as a child and when he'd opened his mouth to ask why – he'd been shot down by his peers and teachers alike.

What makes a man evil? If it is the body count he leaves behind then how does one justify the actions a good man takes in war? If it is the moral fiber with which he conducts his person, then why are some of the most renowned figures in history known to be criminals, abusers, drunkards that would sooner sell a land into slavery than lose so much as a cent out of their own pocket? How about a man who betrays his people and country to do something in the name of all humanity – to do what he believes is right. Only to be executed for his crimes. Is he evil or good?

As a child these questions were frequently the cause for disquiet among his teachers and the other students. Because it was disruptive, because it did not fit with the narrative they were teaching and frankly put, his teachers were not being paid to deal with interruptions such as his.

Avery understood. He knew that they were expected to teach something and he was expected to repeat it back to them on the papers given. Yes, as a child these queries were out of place and put a great strain on all those around him.

Why, the first time he took the name of arguably the most evil man in all of history and pointed out the small good he had done and the larger evils he had managed to snuff out – he'd been struck. He learnt quickly what lines existed and what thoughts could not pass through mind to mouth.

So Avery thought. He buried himself in his thoughts, looking for pieces of a puzzle he hadn't quiet found the time to name yet, and searched. Never once giving voice to his own internal ponderings.

That was what lead him to look inside. What pushed him to take those first timid steps into his own person and see all the little pieces of himself. Some so unsightly they kept him up at night, wondering if he should exist when such ugliness lived inside of him. Festering and eating away at his efforts to come out of his youth as a respectable young man.

It wasn't enough. So he looked deeper. Kept searching for that one little piece of him that would explain it all away. Avery Hale spent his youth searching for his own sense of morality. He spent twenty-seven years searching, desperately trying to figure out what it was that stayed his hand from evil when threats of a god or man's punishment did not sway him.

He passed out of childhood, confused and agitated into the awkward stages of being a teenager with little grace. When he finally stumbled, dazed and unprepared, into maturity he had managed to find a bit of his own footing. Grounding himself with some base facts and observations of himself and the world. By the time he was ready to really begin diving into what made society tick, Avery had already become a fully-fledged adult. Yet still he searched for the answers to things he still failed to fully understand.

It was during his final years of searching that he first met Jonathan Crane.

Crane was younger than himself by roughly a decade, but he was impossibly brilliant. Crane started his studies not long before Avery had finished his own, young and focused on what he desired, he easily surpassed Hale's own studies.

Both men were too lost in their own worlds to take much notice of their peers. Hale spent much of his time reaching out to people and finding himself at a loss for how satisfy his own expectations of them. While as Crane slipped through the cracks, at best ignored and at worst ridiculed. The result was much the same for the pair; they completed their studies with a distance to their peers.

It was for the best in a way. Both emerged with their education and titles. Both came out just as focused and ready to continue their work and ultimately they ended up in the same place.

They always did.  _Always_.

"Ah, Dr. Crane. A moment if you will?" Avery called out to his colleague, having just caught him before the man could scurry out of the university doors and vanish back into his abode. Avery had been trying to snare him for just a few seconds for the past week with little success. It was purely good fortune that he'd managed to catch sight of him that day and even more fortunate that Crane stopped when called.

As Avery approached, he took notice of the psychology teacher's clothes. They were too tight on him, at least two sizes too small and he noted a small rip at the shoulder seam of the right sleeve. There was likely more damage but it was obscured under the man's pile of books – all of which were in considerably better condition than his clothes.

Naturally Avery said nothing. It was hardly his place.

"Professor Hale…" Crane greeted reluctantly, a dryness to his tone that Avery chose not to dwell on. Casting one last longing look towards the university doors, Crane gradually turned to face his coworker. "What service can I provide you?"

Jonathan Crane had been his student once but even when that had been the case, Hale was distinctly aware that Crane had the ability to run mental circles around him. At least within the range of his own area of study. Dr Crane was the best mind in the building all things psychology, however his narrow-minded view regarding what urged humans on did limit him somewhat.

Keeping both limitations and genius in mind, Avery approached the younger man with a mental note to keep his expression warm.

"I've heard your students talking, Dr Crane." There was a slight stiffness in the man's spine at Avery's comment. He had not meant it to sound like the beginning of a chastising. Quite the opposite. With Crane being such a quiet, withdrawn student, Avery had worried he might not take to the spotlight that was required when teaching. He'd never been more relieved to have been wrong. "They say you're passionate in your teachings, I'm relieved to hear you're taking to this position so well. After what happened…"

Avery paused, a frown crossing his face as he thought of the previous psychology professor. He'd been Crane's mentor and Avery knew the wound must still have been fresh for the man who'd just stepped into the shoes of another. No doubt Crane was still reeling from it himself, he'd been the last one to see his old mentor before the tragedy occurred.

It was so horrible. No one had expected the professor to throw himself from the roof – he'd seemed so happy. So  _stable_.

Shaking off the dreadful thought, Avery returned his attention to Crane, wishing to express his willingness to assist the young man with any strains that might accompany him. It was a luxury that had not been extended to himself when he first began to work in the university and Jonathan had a difficult enough time with his financial state and the scorn of a few other teachers within the building.

"Regardless." Avery straightened up, rifling through a few of the papers he'd been carrying tight to his chest. He'd been keeping them handy on the off chance he was able to catch Jonathan before he hurried off. He was right to have done so. "I'd very much appreciate it if you could have a look over a few of these papers."

A shadow of doubt crossed the young doctor's face. Avery could see hesitance there and so he threw out the bait he knew the young man couldn't turn away from. "I specifically took out the ones using my student's theories on fear as stimulus within a population. Simon has a rather interesting take on fear motivating great good in people as opposed to evil. Similarly Jessica proposed that human nature inherently relies on fear in order to sustain a particular standard of living. Of course I can't say I particularly-"

The papers were out of hands before Avery had quite finished speaking and a familiar comforting smugness curled in the back of his mind. A ghost of approval to mirror the satisfaction his outward self felt.

Crane rifled through the set of papers that Avery had offered him with a spark the man had come to recognize. While Jonathan might have limited himself in the way he focused on the nature of fear, he was never opposed to exploring all the various aspects and twists one could take on the matter. Still Avery wished he'd expand his field of work just a little bit, but as always the doctor immediately shot down any suggestions that just  _maybe_  fear was not the most important part of human nature.

It was an argument they'd had more than once, or as near to an argument as they managed. Crane was so private and Avery didn't fancy himself as much of a fighter – verbal or otherwise. Debate was well within their parameters but arguments were a rarity. Still Avery couldn't say he disliked the occasional impassioned discussion. Crane had certainly enlightened him and he could only hope that at least one or two of his own proposals had made it into Jonathan's consideration.

Fear was such a despicable thing.

While Jonathan sorted through the inked words right there in front of Avery, the older man let his mind dwell on the aspect of humanity that so captivated the young man. He'd thought of fear in exceedingly simple terms most of his life. Fear kept people safe, it drove them to do things to keep them alive and urged them away from risky actions. It served a fundamental purpose in society and Avery had been happy to leave it at that.

But then Jonathan Crane had appeared in his classroom.

Oh, of course he said nothing during his lectures. It wasn't in Jonathan's nature to put himself on stage in front of his peers. As such it was always after the other students had cleared away that the skinny, poorly dressed youth would approach him and put forward a complaint or comment on his simplification of something as extensive as fear.

Never one to turn away an eager mind or shut out a new thought, Avery encouraged Crane to further dispute him. His hesitation had lasted all of five seconds before the young man was talking a mile a minute, filling Avery's head full of new ideas and information. Even at that stage Crane surpassed him in his knowledge in that particular area but he still had a lot of catching up to do in others.

Four years later and there they stood in the hall of the university, both teachers and both eager to keep on their set paths. Regardless of where they might be leading.

Understanding was so close that Avery could practically taste it. Completion so near he could feel it grazing his finger tips as he blindly grasped for it. He had grown to accept and quietly despair the very thing that motivated Crane. Fear, for all the good it offered – was perhaps the fundamental element of the things that plagued humanity most.

"What do you think?" Avery asked after a sufficient time had passed. "You are aware I could easily look over them myself, but I felt it would be…inconsiderate to not at least offer you the chance to peek."

The look on Crane's face was positively vibrant. Feverish almost and not for the first time Avery wondered about him. Worried that he might need help himself rather than offering it to young wayward boys to assist with their anger and trauma. Still, Avery had never been able to begrudge happiness or passion and so he indulged Crane's quirks.

"I'll have them back to you come tomorrow." Crane promised and Avery smiled with the thought of the discussion that would come the following day.

If Crane would appear before him with a hundred new ideas circulating his mind or if he'd storm in and snarl his displeasure at which ever student begrudged his ever favoured human characteristic.

"I look forward to it."

…

…

The following morning was decidedly  _not_  one of their more pleasant disagreements.

"How can you claim to understand the basic construct of society when you fail to acknowledge that fear is-!"

"Just one of many human faculties!" Avery cut across the younger man sharply.

They'd been having this 'discussion' for what was the better half of their lunch break. He was unsure of at what point their once reasonable tones had escalated but now they were bordering on shouting at one another and Avery was very nearly at his wits end. The coffee they'd both brewed to slug through the rest of the day had been promptly forgotten and it would be stone cold by the time either man remembered they'd made it.

"You cannot forgo things like compassion, charity,  _basic_  human decency!" He continued to assert, unaware that he was beginning to make exaggerated gestures with his hands. Ranging from throwing them in the air to simply jamming a finger in Crane's direction. Had he not been so fired up Avery would have had the presence of mind to be a little more careful with his fragile bones.

"People are compassionate because they're afraid of those same bad things being done to them. They are charitable in the hopes that they won't be left without a leg to stand on should their own fortunes vanish. They're decent because they are  _afraid_." Dr Crane quickly countered, his own actions perhaps even more dramatic than Avery's. His limbs were considerably longer than Avery's own after all.

Professor Hale had been valiantly defending one of his student's papers he'd submitted to Crane the day prior to this  _lovely_  discussion. It was one he rather liked, perhaps a touch juvenile in its approach but a pure account of how the masses reacted towards one another and what could prompt acts of generosity outside of obligation, shame or fear of some force punishing them for lacking kindness. Avery thought that with a bit of fine-tuning this particular student stood a chance to shine – to really work their way through the novelties of human society.

Admittedly the young man was more interested in the economical aspects of social science but Avery found he positively shone in the philosophy course he took on the side. A hobby the boy had told him, a  _hobby_. Children these days, they amused Avery in ways he hadn't thought possible.

"I refuse to believe that all of human society can be built on such a negative mindset." Avery spat back at Crane, his temper flaring.

"Why?" Jonathan was quick to rebuke and Avery found himself rather less fond of Crane's ability to conjure up confidence from places unknown when speaking his opinions on fear. "Does it  _scare_  you?"

"Oh for heaven's sake-!" Avery felt he was a moment's notice away from shaking Jonathan out of frustration. Instead he once again, as reasonably as humanly possible while positively fuming, asserted what he'd already said countless times that day alone. "Not everything stems from fear, Dr Crane."

"Of course it does."

A headache was abruptly forming between Avery's eyes and he found himself staring silently at Crane. He intended to go on and Avery wasn't going to bother wasting the air to try and speak over him. He'd just have to wait Crane out and maybe find something in the young man's argument to pull apart. "You for example are afraid that I am right. Afraid that all that human decency you cling to is just a fabrication to cover the only real human motivator."

Despite his reassignment to let Crane talk, Avery spat out a sharp, "Absurd!" at that comment. He got little else out before Jonathan was going full steam again.

By this point the pair had gotten so lost in their bickering that they'd let the rest of the world fall away around them. The other teachers that had been present, heating up left overs and going for another pot of well deserved coffee, had long since stopped trying to be subtle in their eaves dropping and either evacuated the area or were flat out ogling them.

Word must have spread about the impending teacher fight, that or their voices really had escalated to a shout, because few curious students had gathered. Daring to peer into the teachers lounge to see what the fuss was. Imagine their surprise when they found professor Avery, arguably the most mild mannered teacher, and Dr. Crane, universally agreed to be the most anti-social and peculiar of their teachers – arguing it out like a pair of hotheaded students themselves.

The likelihood of blows was low enough that some students lost interest, the ones who took neither man's class drifting away over time. While those that did know at least one of the pair became enraptured in the simple absurdity of it all. The teachers that attempted to shoo the curious eyes way didn't find themselves having much success.

All the while Crane lectured Avery whilst the older man tried desperately to remake the same point he'd been making all morning. Each time it fell on deaf ears until Avery remarked he was practically talking to a brick wall. Crane's responding remark was just as scathing and one student actually had the gal to giggle at the display.

"And what if you're wrong?" Avery snapped finally, relenting enough to allow the 'if' to slip in. Anything to get Crane to yield for just a moment. "For argument's sake, lets say you're wrong and not everything is based on fear – what then, Dr. Crane?"

"I hardly think-" Crane began.

"For argument's sake."

There was a brief, frosty silence as Crane stared down his former teacher. Avery saw something swimming behind the young man's eyes but couldn't quiet place what it was. Perhaps, in a perverse way, that concept was Jonathan's own personal fear. The one that was buried so deep inside of him that even Crane refused to unearth it.

It was like a splash of cold water when Avery recalled his own youth, dragging those fears and demons out wherever he could find them. Throwing them up on display to himself even at they corroded his insides and left him bare. Avery had hunted through every ugly little aspect of himself, chasing down whatever small spark of evil he could in himself and ripping it apart.

In an effort to  _understand_. To understand himself, others – everything. Now he stood here bickering with another man almost a decade his junior who was yet to do just that. Avery chose to dissect himself in ways only he could, Jonathan was not obliged to follow that course of action.

And so begrudgingly Avery conceded.

Jonathan must have seen it in the way the fight left his body and abruptly the argument was over. There was still caution written on Crane's face, unwilling to completely let his guard down lest Avery throw him another curve ball. Instead he offered a compromise – an exchange of knowledge, of vision.

"I'll make a deal with you, Dr Crane. You write me a fragment of your mind, a piece of your view on the world in respect to my own. Show me how fear influences my area of study and I'll take it into proper consideration. Then I'll present it to my own students to consider."

"You'll teach it in your classroom?" He didn't believe him, of course not. It was too good an offer, an easy one at that. Yet Avery confirmed what was on the table with little more than a stiff nod.

Part of him was genuinely wary of what Crane would put down in front of him, given the chance.

"I imagine you'll do the same?" Jonathan ventured and Avery chuckled dryly with a small shake of his head as he eased back down into his chair. Unaware he'd stood at all. Somewhere along the way both men had gotten to their feet and started fighting in earnest. With the argument sizzling out Avery suddenly felt the weight of his own weak body again and needed the seat.

"I'm sure I've shouted all of it at you this morning. No need to get it down in ink." The remark might have almost been worth it for the tiny smirk that Jonathan gave Avery in return.

"I will be asking for something in return, Professor Hale." Avery simply tossed Crane a curious look before gesturing for him to request away. His voice was sore from all their snide comments; he needed a moment to regain the ability to be snippy. "You'll tell me what you're afraid of." Jonathan paused before adding as an afterthought. "Not right away, think about it for a while then tell me and I'll tell you if you're right or not."

Being dissected by another person was hardly a new experience for Avery and behind his conscious mind there was that usual stirring again. Furious, and ugly in its rage. Avery didn't mind people poking around in his mind, however there were parts of him that did. An invasion of privacy that part of Avery seemed to protest but he paid it little mind. Offering up a mental compromise to quiet its disgruntle complaints before agreeing to Crane's proposal. He was almost interested to see what the young psychologist would deem a lie and even more interested in what he would offer up as a lie to himself.

The day wasn't even out before Jonathan Crane appeared in his classroom, papers in hand. Avery took them, very nearly cringing as the soft paper glided into his hands. Something containing what would no doubt be incredibly unpleasant should not feel so light. While Avery Hale regarded the papers cautiously, Crane grinned.

What Avery returned home with that night was all he'd expected and more. He could hear Jonathan's impassioned, almost fanatical voice leaking through in the writing. He knew every expression, no matter how minute they were, in every paragraph and despite himself – Avery was ensnared.

For all the terrible things Crane proposed, there was an undeniable excitement in his work. More to the point Avery found himself surprised with how closely Crane actually did address his own personal passion. Human decency had always captivated him.

As a child he wondered what it was, in his teenaged years he pondered why people attempted to keep it and now as an adult he scrutinized those who were and were decidedly  _not_  decent.

He'd raked over history time and time again. Picking apart horrors of others and what specifically made them atrocities. He found good where they should be none and evil where it had no place. In an effort to combat these contradictions, to make them fit neatly into a set of logical answers – Avery had done what he'd always done. He'd looked in.

What he found inside himself and society - much like what he currently found written down in Jonathan's hand – scared him.

Avery laughed. A dry, bitter sound of disbelief. He was afraid and oh how he knew Crane would have reveled in it. How quickly he would have pounced on even the smallest opportunity and start pulling Avery open and gutting him of every fear and insecurity he'd ever had. All with that same fascinated smile. Ruthless as he was – Avery would never doubt the man's effectiveness.

Jonathan had written Avery's fears down in the pages he'd handed over that day. Easily, effortlessly – putting all of Avery's struggles to understand himself to shame.

For when Avery pried himself open and peered inside to see where his ugliness stemmed from – he had indeed found fear. Small and cowardly, curling up behind his anger and judgment. The secret motivator for all his faults, fear had influenced him and Avery watched as it controlled all of society.

He sat in his home for hours, simply pouring over Crane's words. The papers he brought home from his students momentarily forgotten, as he was enraptured in the words Jonathan had handed him. It was a detestable, disgusting account on humans. Highlighting the weakness in all of them, Avery included. But he couldn't seem to look away and the arguments began to weave inside of his mind, taking root there and refusing to be dislodged with any amount of reasoning.

He had only just finished reading the final word of Crane's notes when he was pulling himself out of his seat. Dashing for his coat and cane – hurrying back to the university.

Avery couldn't say exactly what compelled him to move so quickly that morning. Surely it could have waited until the sun had risen. But he didn't give the day the time to catch up with him. It would have been obscured by the ever-constant clouds shrouding their fair city regardless.

Huddled away in his office, Avery worked. He scrapped the lessons he'd had planned, scrawled down his new plans and true to his word he included Crane's notes into the new schedule. Before he knew it Avery's every thought and query was falling out onto the pages as he scribbled away.

For all their fighting, Crane had been victorious. He'd successfully pinpointed what it was Avery had been missing and every once in a while Avery cursed the brilliant young man. He reviled him in those brief moments, hated that Crane was able to so easily draw out what Avery had been seeking for years.

A simple understanding of what was wrong with the world.

Jonathan praised fear, he cultivated it – damn near seemed to worship it. But Avery's opinion of it had shifted in the opposite direction. It was the cause for too much suffering and hatred in his eyes. The safety it provided also divided humans and stood in the way of progress. Avery could never and would never abide by such a thing.

"Evil." He had once told his class. "Is history. We perceive something as evil because we have moved beyond it, because we are outside looking in. We look back and shun our ancestors for their treatment of coloured men and women. We spurn them for their outdated views on sexuality and individuality. We cast them out, distance ourselves and title them as 'evil'. " It had been a rather offhand comment but one student, a young girl who had been new to his class at the time had spoken up.

"Are you saying they aren't evil? What about slavery? Women not being able to vote?"

"On the contrary, I believe that evil – evil on mass – is simple a matter of becoming obsolete. Many things we, as a society, collectively view as immoral were once a norm. Only once it falls out of normalcy can something be labeled as evil. As such progress could be considered the true morality. Or at the very least, what we accept as moral."

He'd gone on to discuss how idiocy was much the same. At the time baking one's self in oil at the beach for a lovely glow was considered a healthy thing to do and smoking no more problematic than eating red meat. Things that, with the benefit of hindsight, were clearly wrong. Dangerously, stupidly wrong. But it was normalcy. Avery simple proposed that morality was much the same, an ever changing, shifting view of the world. There could be only a few set rules of human morals.

His class he agreed in the majority that things like murder were immoral no matter the time period. Avery had carelessly agreed.

Jonathan Crane and written away his words in little more than a sentence.

To kill someone was immoral because people feared being killed. Make it immoral, you make it illegal – you protect yourself from those that would kill you if there were not threat of repercussions. Avery could not dispute that line of thought in his own heart. Crane extended similar explanations to all base morals. Theft, cheating, murder, rape – all of it he could quickly and simply boil down to fear in one way or another.

By the time the sun finally peeked over the horizon, only signaled by the lighter shade of the cloud cover over head, Avery was on his second coffee and when the university floors opened to the students he was well into his fourth. His mind was still alight, going too quickly to really be considered calculated. He was  _excited_.

Because he thought he finally had it. The final simple piece he'd been looking for. That answer to morality that had pestered him for so long. All given in little under five pages of a young Jonathan Crane's work.

"Good morning everyone." Avery greeted his class that morning. Shuffling into the theater putting most of his weight on his cane. The lack of sleep showed but Avery's new enthusiasm for what he was going to say that day trumped the exhaustion.

The usual class had gathered and Avery was pleased to note that very few of his class had decided to skip the class that day. Those that were dispassionate or tired were quietly hiding in the back and Avery was content to leave them there. This was a simple lecture, one of three they had each week and so long as they let some of the discussion slip into their heads and kept their papers in order – he let them rest.

"Today I'm going to ask you about fear." There was a resounding groan from half of the gathered students. Avery stopped. "Ah, let me guess. Those of you who just grumbled have come from Dr. Crane's clutches have you?"

"Please." Miss Higgins complained from her seat at the front of the room. The poor ginger girl groaned, slumping boneless against her fold down desk. "We've heard so much about fear. Can we talk about something else?  _Anything_  else?"

Avery chuckled; passing those that clearly had Crane's class a sympathetic glance. "Unfortunately I've made Dr. Crane a promise to have this discussion with you. Let me at least try to keep you awake, if you find yourself unable to bear it after a few minutes we'll search for another topic."

There were no more verbal complaints but Avery could feel himself losing a few of them. "Do you all remember what I asked you last week?" He asked, hoping that the prompt would help pull a few of them back from sleep. The kids enjoyed tossing around their own ideas on what the world was and should be. It was a self-absorbed habit that he played on frequently. People loved to talk about themselves, their ideology was merely an extension of this.

"About morals?" Timothy asked slowly, one student that made an effort to always show up but was usually too tired to really focus. Avery knew he was doing too much work – stretching himself too thin. He appreciated the boy's efforts to still come to class while running on three hours of sleep. They were both working on roughly the same number of hours that day. It may have evened the playing field a tad.

"Yes. I asked you all to go away and truly consider yourself. As honestly as you possibly could and come back to me with a few frank observations. This is not something I can help either one of you with – you'll have to work on it yourself."

Avery noticed a small hand go up. Unusual, most students simply just spoke up; abandoning the practice of asking for permission once they shrugged their final years of high school. Usually earlier than that even. Taking notice of the small novelty, Avery eagerly called upon the student to speak.

"Is it...is it alright if I tell you about what I found out? You asked us to use ourselves as example to figure out why people hated others." A back row student this time. Shifting nervously in her seat, Sally gave an honest attempt to give him some feedback. Though she clearly didn't fancy the spotlight. "I…well I thought- because well you see – I grew up hating men s-so I…"

She was turning red very quickly and Avery did feel pity for her but more than that he felt excitement. Yes, that was what he was looking for. An honest, albeit slightly awkward observation of ones self. She was ashamed of what she had once felt and it made it difficult for her to speak about it now, but she'd acknowledged it and Avery couldn't have been prouder.

"Did you figure out why?" Avery pressed, willing to let Sally forget she'd spoken up at all but not before trying to urge a conclusion out of her. "Why you disliked men?"

Sally looked like she was attempting to curl in on herself, no doubt able to feel all eyes on her. Avery noticed with fascination that Sally's comment about men had stirred most of the class in some way or another. He could see the challenge forming in some of their eyes; there was no doubt at least one student in here that would be ready to refute Sally at a seconds notice. Brand her as a misandrist or a radicalist.

This was what Avery was searching for. This primal reaction to being threatened and as Sally spoke his conviction only grew stronger.

"The boys picked on me when I was a girl. They said I couldn't do things because I was a girl and they pushed me around…so I got scared. I thought that if I didn't fight back, or hate them then I'd be weak and my whole life would be dictated by someone else…so I…so I hated them."

"But now you don't?" Avery half questioned, half comforted the girl with tone alone. He was not here to judge her for the past she'd had. After all she'd gone through a perfectly normal process and come out a fine young lady. Avery was curious to see how aware of the process she was.

"N-No! Not at all. I mean…you can't hate a group of people just because of some bad eggs. Right…?"

Never had Avery wanted to applaud a student more than he did in that moment. Well, Avery had never been much for holding back admiration, and so he did just that. Three quick claps of approval, the fist drawing a jump from Sally before she realised he meant to praise her.

"Perfect." Avery commended the young girl before tapping his cane back on the ground, returning to the center of his class. These days were his favorites, where he was free to simple hold a discussion and throw around ideas – leave the textbooks and assignments for the coming lessons.

"You see, as much as some of you may have tired of Mr. Crane's lectures – he has given me quite a bit to think about on the matter of fear in society. Sally, you were afraid and so your fear – without you even knowing at the time I'd wager – turned to hatred as a defense mechanism."

"Similarly on the other end, fear drives one man to deny oppression in order to maintain the notion he is a good man and does not need to fear losing his position in life to another group of people. By the same token, a woman may hate men for fear of being oppressed or returning to the way things were. On the other side of that there is the man, who is afraid that things will change so drastically that he will become the one being subjugated. People close their borders because they fear imagined monsters. Whole groups are demonized and rejected for the fear of a select few extremists. So on and so on."

Avery paused to take stock of his class. Already he could see it, the denial growing behind some of their eyes. The unspoken cry of 'you're wrong, I'm not like that! It's them, the outsider'. He looked at it in their eyes and wondered if they really believed it deep down. But then there were others that had a different look. The same one he'd worn when reading Crane's paper. They agreed and Avery felt exhilarated.

He spoke quickly. Diving into how fear could be blown out of proportion and cause mass panic or distrust of a whole group of people. One, to use Sally's words, bad egg could result in thousands of others baring the brunt of their crimes. A different religious mindset or set of chromosomes could result in new words being used to describe the same atrocity. One man could be labeled a terrorist of delinquent while another could be called troubled or a murder after carrying out the same act with little more than a different pigment of skin between them.

"What we fail to do, on mass as a species, is look in at ourselves and accept fault. It is hard for a country to look at itself and admit that the danger might have come from within its walls when it can instead blame another place or people regardless of where the threat truly originated. It can be just as difficult for a race to look at themselves and see their actions as equally biased as the people they rally against."

Avery paused and then with a small smile said the most obvious thing in the world.

"There are times where our fear makes us forget that each and every one of us is little more than another person. They are just as human and just as afraid as anyone else."

The class went on and those that had been difficult or uncomfortable tentatively put forward their protests and contradictions. Bringing up famous, well-known actions that justified the divide between people. Most of which could very quickly be countered with a simple statistic or correction of a factual error. Avery worked to make them see, to stop rejecting the notion that perhaps they had faults of their own and look closely at themselves.

Avery implored each and every one of his students to not let fear blind them. To look at the things they believed and fully dissect why it was they thought that way. Should they do that and come away unchanged then that was simply the type of person they had chosen to be – Avery would not begrudge them for that.

By the end of the lesson the class had almost entirely agreed in this simple way of viewing the world. He went away hoping perhaps he'd made stronger young men and women of his students.

He was hardly surprised when he found Dr. Crane lingering by his lecture room door at the end of the lesson. Avery had been expecting the man at some point or another to appear and ensure that Avery had indeed kept his word. Rather it was Crane who seemed to be the one left startled.

"You read my proposal." He noted simply as Avery cleaned up his desk. "And you taught it."

"I do believe that was the deal we struck, yes."

Crane did not immediately respond to that and Avery allowed the young man to work through whatever thoughts were troubling him in silence. Then finally he glanced back in Avery's direction.

"You twisted it considerably." There was a note of warning in that observation but still Avery was not surprised.

"I teach fear as something that drives humanity. I encourage my students to acknowledge, accept and then overcome their own personal fears as well as that of the masses. Little more than that."

Crane wasn't pleased with this. Shifting in agitation, drawing the already tight fixing suit a little too taut around his arms as he crossed them over his chest. Avery knew Crane's interest in fear went far beyond curing or over coming it, however he couldn't say exactly what his aim with it was. To understand maybe. It was possible Crane's desire was just as pure as his own – that need to comprehend humans.

Or perhaps it was not. There was every chance that Jonathan's obsession was malicious in nature. Although it disheartened Avery to believe so.

"You asked me to tell you my fear." Avery began, snaring Crane's attention once again. "At the time I considered things as simple as fear of failure, death – pain. Things that everyone in their right mind would fear. But if I were to say what my greatest fear is, it would be the thought that humanity will simply fall apart. That our society will collapse in on itself and we'll tear one another to shreds like animals without an ounce of sympathy between us."

"Is that really what you fear, professor?" Crane pondered and Avery did not miss the note of cynicism in the younger man's words.

"Is there anything more terrifying than that, Dr Crane?" He reasoned calmly. "The collapse of all human decency – a scary thought, is it not?"

With his things gathered, Avery stood as straight as his poor spine would allow and took stock of his colleague once again.

In his youth, Avery decided that Jonathan was likely a target of much ridicule. He wore his pain like a badge in many respects, allowing it to twist his mindset into what it was today. His focus on fear, his sharp temper and seemingly boundless capacity for hatred – all of it screamed of his suffering. Avery was hardly the psychologist that Jonathan was but it was not a difficult case to pull apart.

His own childhood might have reflected what he was today. Avery was willing to concede that his own experiences may have influenced his focus on human decency. He imagined most people were the same in this respect.

However most of Jonathan Crane was as much a mystery to him as the day he appeared in his classroom. Some things were easy to pick, facets of his person obvious from the moment Avery laid eyes on him. But the rest was hidden, deep down beyond his reaches.

Had Jonathan been kind enough to allow it or Avery bold enough to request permission – he may have attempted to dig deeper into the man's mind.

It was hardly fair, seeing as Crane seemed to need only a look to know exactly what Avery's person consisted of. Had he been a more private man, a more uncertain person, he would have shrunk away from Jonathan's scrutiny. But as it was, Avery stood with all his defects and strengths that he'd analyzed in himself on display for Jonathan. With only one locked deep enough that he felt certain even the infamous Jonathan Crane could not unearth it without proper probing.

Ignoring the ever-protesting feeling at the back of his mind.

Avery was the most accomplished liar in that respect.

He allowed anyone and everyone access to his demons. As a child he'd had learnt early what demons were appropriate and which would have him sent back to a professional in need of counseling. Talk of imaginary friends, conflicting thoughts or – dare he so much as think it – another presence within him were all grounds for medication and psychiatric help.

So Avery learnt what to say and what not to say. He figured out when he was expected to smile and when to frown and most importantly when to display his defects and when to hide his true ugliness behind the shield of honesty.

He did not worry about his mental health. He functioned just as anyone else would with the exception of his weak body and frequent hospital visits. His mind was a rather valued part of his person and Avery was proud to think that it was perhaps one of the few parts of him unburdened with sickness.

Just because Avery Hale never felt alone, nor complete was in no way cause for alarm. In childhood he called it an imaginary friend, as an adult he chalked it up to the way his mind was wired. Nothing more and nothing less. The suggestion of his childhood counselor that he might have had a deeper condition was laughable. Voices, split personalities, delusions – none of it applied to him. Professor Avery Hale was as sane as he'd ever been and he believed this with the same level of conviction that he believed the sun would rise and set each day.

Jonathan had not left the doorway, still looking in at Avery as if he dared not trespass into the other teacher's space. A courtesy that Dr Crane no doubt found himself without on most days, Avery made a note never to entre the man's teaching space without express permission.

"And what would you do if it did collapse?" Crane questioned. Studying Avery for any indication of a lie. He would find none. "What would you do if your worst fear came true?"

Without missing a beat. "I would not allow it."

Jonathan smiled at the simple sharpness of the professor's answer. Avery didn't look too deep into that expression, knowing that if he did he'd find something unsightly beneath it. Instead Avery took his cane in hand and made his way over to Jonathan. He paused momentarily sharing the space of the open doorway with the other man.

"I will not allow it."

Then he left. Knowing full well that Crane would not leave it be. He would probe for more when he was able, look for deeper fears but for today it was enough. Avery left doctor Jonathan Crane lingering in the doorway to his lecture theater and pondered exactly in what way the man would attempt to assault his mind next. He expected it to be much the same as their other conversations – forgotten coffee and clashing principles. Avery expected it to begin the same as always the next morning.

However it never came.

The following morning doctor Crane is sacked for firing a gun inside his classroom.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More Crane next chapter, I promise.

Gotham was the sort of city that changed massively in the space of a few short months and somehow not at all in the long run.

For this generation the change could be pinpointed with a name – Batman.

With the caped crusader there came a shift in balance. The city that had been notoriously run from the underground for decades was suddenly without their usual monsters. Falcone and Maroni had been all but chased out of business by the bat. Even Sionis Industries had taken a massive blow after their boss was discovered to be of less than a stable mind. 

Last Avery had heard Roman Sionis had fled the city after some horrific incident left him permanently scarred. Whispers circulated, giving new names and titles to the former crime lord – false face society,  _Black Mask_. Avery didn't pry too deep, didn't go looking for the details of the monster's dethroning. Sionis was gone and Avery felt the city was all the better for it.

Left and right the status quo was shifting and Gotham was left reeling with the changes. The city took a new shape, testing these new waters with trepidation. Suddenly the Gotham underground was knocked out of power, leaving the small players to run amok in a mad scramble for power. They too fell to the bat, with far less extravagance than the former Gotham masters had.

In some ways the Batman had turned from legend to law. The days of jeering at the notion of a bat creature flying down from the night sky to take out unsuspecting criminals were long gone. Everyone knew the Batman was real now, regardless of their theories and opinions on the creature – they believed.

And they were afraid.

Avery scoffed as the idle thought of what his former associate would think of the Batman. Using his favourite element of human nature to his advantage. Avery could not decide if Jonathan would be furious or fascinated. Perhaps a perverse mixture of the two.

It had been roughly a month since Jonathan's dismissal and Avery had not seen hide nor hair of the man.

Rumor had it that he'd been able to find work at the asylum. Frankly Avery would rather not think of that decrepit place. There was nothing but foul things to be said about it. Whispers of gross mistreatment were as common as the asylum's ghost stories. It was a building like many in Gotham, although none could claim to be as blood soaked as every brick that made up the old asylum's foundation. Honestly it seemed a perfect place for Jonathan though Avery doubted he could stomach it.

Part of him wilted, having only just discovered that missing piece to his personal philosophy thanks to Crane's writings. He'd been excited to see what he could pull from their future conversations but it seemed Jonathan was both too young and brilliant for his own good – he'd overstepped his bounds and now Avery had watched him enter and be banished from the establishment in a matter of five years.

However there was a part of Avery, a large part of him that breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

He may grow to miss their arguments and found himself in need of a new sharp mind to challenge him, to keep him on his feet so to speak. But Avery could not deny the liberation that came with knowing the man was gone.

Disregarding the slight unease that Jonathan Crane inspired in him, Avery felt that boy was still in need of life lessons. The school was no place for him right now, he had yet to really venture out into the world, all his life had been spent in school and books – perhaps the distance would do him some good. If only he got away from that dreadful asylum as well.

Choosing to hold onto that slim hope, Avery went about his usual days at the school right up until the point Scarecrow first appeared.

"Professor?" Avery paused mid step.

He'd been ready to head home for the day, his mother and father were expecting him for tea that evening and no doubt had a list of probing questions lined up for him. Most of which he would deflect or disappoint with his answers. No girlfriend as of yet or plans of holidays – just more work. His mother would appreciate his efforts but his old man would worry about his unsociable behaviour. Avery loved them dearly but their fretting was misplaced – and admittedly, at times, exhausting.

Honestly being stopped for a few seconds by the sound of a student calling him was a welcome distraction.

"Ah, miss Molly." Avery smiled warmly, making use of the name all his students used for Molly Kage. Usually accompanied by a 'gosh golly', just to really drive the ridiculousness of it all home. "What can I do for you?"

Molly was a small girl. A sweet smile accompanied by big hazel eyes and rich skin on top of being tiny in statue. Delicate, in a word. She was also incredibly bright, her mind sharp as a tack though she'd never confess to it. Avery thought of her as one of his favorite students. She was studying to become a psychologist, an increasingly popular course in this generation it seemed. But she had a flair for story telling and Avery had read over a few of her short stories in the past, editing and offering advice for her at times.

If any student had to stop him he was glad it was one of his best.

He was thrilled when she timidly presented him with one of her personal writings. Uttering something along the lines of how busy he was and she didn't mind if he didn't read it. Of course he put such hesitations to rest immediately.

The way her face lit up made the extra hours he'd have to spend up that night more than worth it.

"Miss Molly!" The poor girl jumped and let out a squeak of alarm as miss Higgins practically dove on the girl. Enveloping her in a bear hug much to Molly's stuttering protests. Avery watched the pair of his students with a faintly bemused expression. It was good to see them in such high spirits. Kallie glanced up at Avery with her usual confident grin. "Hey, teach."

"Evening miss Higgins." She snorted at his usual polite greeting but didn't correct him. Most people called her Higgins as opposed to Kallie. A personal preference of hers – the miss was optional however. An option Avery almost always kept to.

Higgins was a bit of a rarity in his classes. A true character; confident, loud and on occasion a bit boorish. Avery had been a little confused when she first crept into his class, having just moved from out of town. An outsider in Gotham in itself was often reason for pause but coupled with her sunny demeanor and stubborn attitude she stuck out. She's proven to be tardy, often late to his lectures and almost always doing assignments last minute – her work was good enough to earn a pass but he often implored her to study harder knowing she could shine if she just procrastinated a little less.

Overall she was another small ray of sunshine within his classes. She'd taken quite a particular shine to Molly, hovering around her like a mother hen. More than once Avery had witnessed Higgins rearing up in defense of the timid girl. She might not have been the sharpest of his students but Avery was pleased to note Higgin's moral character was one of the strongest he'd ever encountered and her fondness for all things fiction did lead to a fair few interesting stories coming into his classroom.

While the pair chatted, Avery turned his gaze out towards the sky. Gotham was almost always a miserably overcast city but any long term resident could tell when the clouds shifted from the usual gloom to storm worthy. Tonight was shaping up to be a horrendous one, judging by the thick black blanket over the sky.

"You two best hurry home for the day." The look they shot him was a reminder that they were in fact not children anymore. Avery took little notice of the expressions, they were well over a decade younger than himself and his students – they were children in his mind. "It looks like tonight is going to be a stormy one, I don't want either of you getting caught in it."

"Come on, teach." Higgins grinned and Avery resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her antics. "Not scared of a little rain are we?"

Without meaning to Avery sighed aloud at the comment.

This did nothing to dampen miss Higgin's grin, in fact it seemed to double in width. Only Molly looked distressed by his reaction but her concerned expression was enough to have Avery pulling himself back into line, slipping on what he hoped to be a reassuring smile.

"Here I thought you children had enough fear talk since Dr Crane left us." Avery was being generous with the use of the word 'left'. From what he'd heard Crane had been lucky to get chased out without threats of a lawsuit looming over his head. No doubt the university would have tried to sue him had Crane been in a financial position to pay them.

Dr. Long might have been right to dismiss Crane, but Avery couldn't help but feel mildly affronted by the university's readiness to take what money they could. It was hardly becoming of a learning institution to be greedy. But then again, when in Gotham…

"No offense, teach." Higgin's drawled, still draped over Molly's shoulders. "But we're not children so much as you are just old."

"I find it difficult to see what part of that fails to offend, miss Higgins." Despite his best efforts, Avery smiled a bit as he spoke. Keeping a poker face around his students proved difficult at times and Higgins wasn't worried about him being offended for so much as a second. "That's quite enough from the pair of you, take the advice of your  _elders_." He added shooing the pair away. "The university is hardly the best place for a stormy night."

"Teach." Higgins complained, never one to be babied where she could help it. Avery merely fixed the pair with a stern gaze.

"Home before dark." He instructed firmly. "Advice everyone should heed as of now. Myself included."

With the batman and shift in power there came a lot of unease on Gotham's streets. They'd never been the safest city, notorious for their muggings and senseless violence but the gangs had controlled a lot of that. Territory and criminal etiquette had been a rather bizarre set up, but one that had kept most people safe in certain places. Now there were very few areas dedicated to the various criminal factions, meaning everything was just as hazardous.

In spite of all the good the Dark Knight was trying to do, he was only one man and he couldn't save everyone from being mugged in a back alley.

"Do either of you require a ride home?" He added uncertainly. He knew that Molly did not drive at all but she usually found her way home. Once or twice she required a lift from himself or another student when the weather turned particularly nasty.

"We got it, teach. Molly is coming back to my place for a while." Higgins told him eagerly and Avery fought down the smile that threatened to surface.

He knew both girls well enough to think perhaps it was more than a simple visit. Of course he made no comment, it was not his place to do so. Still it eased his mind to see the pair of them happy, he'd been worried about Molly for a time.

Those bruises were suspicious but they'd seemed to suddenly stop appearing once Higgins entered her life.

Higgins was her second set of eyes to look out for doorknobs or tip hazards was what Molly claimed. Avery did not correct her, so long as those bruises never resurfaced and Molly kept one smiling – he'd allow old demons to die.

"I'll leave the pair of you to your evening." Avery smiled faintly waving goodbye to the girls as they wandered off. He could just distantly catch Higgin's excited plan for the evening. A list of dreadful foods and equally tasteless movies – Molly was a kind girl to tolerate Higgin's terrible tastes.

As he watched them leave Avery felt his insides twist with affection that mirrored his outward feelings. There were times where this second opinion of sorts felt entirely unnecessary; they so rarely disagreed on anything.

Shaking his head Avery turned to leave himself, having no more desire to stay in the university than most of the students once classes were over. However he paused. The university was beginning to turn dark, lights being switched off in most of the rooms, but Avery could very clearly see light pooling out of Dr Long's study.

Unusual. Long was usually out the door before anyone else at the university. Avery had, on more than one occasion, questioned the man's hasty retreats. Chalking it up to laziness or anxiety. He would have been a little less forgiving with the man's poor attendance hours if it ever reflected poorly on his work or inconvenienced other staff members. But more often than not Dr. Long had all his affairs in order and left only once it was acceptable. So Avery left him be for the most part. To see his light on at this hour was rather unusual, almost a novelty as Avery imagined only piles of paper work could have kept him in that room once the sun had set.

At first Avery was content to leave it at that, no more than a simple observation. But tonight was one of those exceedingly rare moments where that second opinion  _did_  protest and professor Avery found himself walking towards the light – in the complete opposite direction to the exit.

Perhaps it was one of his own faults that he indulged in this old habit. Allowing the second opinion a final say on nearly everything. Avery might have considered this a dangerous set up had that opinion ever suggested anything that he felt to be threatening or immoral. However it felt as those this other presence usually drove him to do things he knew he should do but for one reason or another tried to turn away from.

A little incentive was hardly a bad thing.

"Dr. Long?" Avery tapped against the door lightly. "Doctor, is something wrong? It's unusual for you to be here so late…"

The door swung inward under the gentle tap of his knuckles and Avery's words flew right out of his mind as the sight inside turned his insides cold. The study was a disaster, a complete wreck. Papers left scattered around to blow haphazardly under the air flowing in through the open – no, the broken – windows.

And slumped at his desk, eyes pried wide open with a dead scream on his face, was Dr Long.

Avery simply stood there. Hand still raised as if to knock again at the door that was no longer standing between him and the gruesome sight. There was something uncanny about the lack of blood. There was just a mess, a body accompanied by the howl of the storm kicking up outside the university walls, and a single piece of hay laying at Avery's feet.

His eyes traveled to the rest of the room and as his gaze roamed, the bodies began to pile up. Dr. Long had evidently not been alone that evening and those joining him for the night had also joined him death. Each face was one he recognized, a colleague he'd one at least one occasion or another spoken too. They were also all of a higher standing then himself within the university – people that made decisions.

There was no sudden movements or scream from Avery as he stared in at the scene. However his fingers did gradually lose their grip on the folders he'd been clutching and they fell to the ground with little fuss, joining the other fallen papers at his feet. The initial shock gradually whittled down into a muted kind of horror.

Each had their face fixed in a look of terror, likely the last emotion they'd felt before death. Avery found those expressions as gruesome as they were fascinating. His curiosity loomed its ugly head, wanting nothing more than to step in closer and study what he was seeing. His self-preservation instincts kept him from taking a single step. Dr Long and the others were clearly dead, their bodies looked as if they were already beginning to cool and Avery couldn't decipher his feelings at that exact moment.

Finally a rational thought came back to him.

Close the door.

So he did just that, sliding the door shut with a click, effectively removing the dreadful display from his sight. Without feeling anything more than a faint notion of inconvenience, Avery flipped out his phone and began the trying task of calling the authorities. The university would need to be closed for a while no doubt; his teaching schedule would need to be adjusted accordingly. He'd send the students home with more work than he'd like to.

They were dead. The thought didn't feel the carry any weight, almost as if his mind hadn't properly registered it. Perhaps he was in shock or maybe denial, Avery wasn't quite sure. However there was a small stirring in him, as the second presence put its own emotions forward to make up for his lack of emotional response.

It was curious.  _Suspicious_ even. But it was not frightened.

The closest Avery or his imagined second opinion came to fear was concern for the university, for their students. The university should be safe, free of such horrors but yet another death had occurred on their grounds.

"Yes, hello?" Avery began calmly, his voice not wavering as he spoke to the emergency services on the other side. "I've just found a body…a set of them actually. I am not sure what happened to them, but…" The best he could hope for was that the GCPD would send someone that cared enough to actually find out what happened to Dr Long and the others.

A few months ago hopes of getting a non-corrupt cop were foolish, but now Avery dared enough to hope that maybe they'd get one of the good ones. The other teachers and he might not have been great friends but they deserved that much.

It was strange Avery would later reflect – that he never stopped to think perhaps this death was anything other than a murder – and somehow he was as unbothered by this than if it hadn't been.

…  
…

It was no more than a week later that Avery's suspicions were confirmed, albeit not in the way he expected.

"I beg your pardon?" Avery stared aghast at what had just come out of the mouth of one of his finest students.

They of course had closed the university while the police did their work but Avery found himself in the unfortunate position of needing to see his students all the same. They had papers due and for all Avery's virtues – modern technology was not among them and so the papers would be handed to him personally.

It had been agreed that they would briefly meet in the city. Miss Higgins had been quick to make the outing quite the event and Avery had been forced to concede to a short lunch with the students willing enough to show up.

This was how he found himself sitting at a small café with a selection of about six students. Three more had stopped by the hand in their paper but opted not to stay for food. Avery couldn't begrudge them for that, he would have liked to return to his readings but when the kids pleaded that he be sociable for at least a few hours – he couldn't refuse them.

"It's true, teach." Higgins piped up around the straw of her milkshake. She'd already violently defended her choice to have a vanilla flavor – which Timothy found to be rather abhorrent. Avery didn't feel the need to remind him that he was currently the one making an honest to god effort to mix a bar of liquorish with his milkshake.

"It was dr. Crane." Amir confirmed with a single grim nod. He had yet to make any real attempt to eat or drink the food placed in front of him and Avery could see his nerves playing out as clear as day. He'd been in Crane's class from the start and Avery couldn't quiet tell if this information upset him or simply scared him – knowing that a killer had been his teacher. "Dean confirmed it."

It was almost poetic in a morbid way. Avery had discovered a day after the deaths exactly what the men had been discussing – exactly who would be filling the position left vacant by Crane's dismissal. He'd been absent from that gathering of course – he had no say in that side of the university and that may have just saved his life.

"Yeah, pretty crazy story actually. Turns out he got sent to Arkham as well. Gotta be weird, working there and now he's a patient." Sam muttered, sounding very much like he'd rather not hear that particular story.

His older brother would have told him all the gory details and Avery inwardly sighed at Dean's frequently antagonistic behaviour towards Sam. Brothers were just like that he supposed. "Dean said he poisoned them with this stuff that made them go crazy. Can going crazy really kill you?"

Avery had some type of assurance on the tip of his tongue but Kallie beat him with a comment of her own.

"Well they're dead aren't they?" Sam's face turned impossibly paler and he gradually pushed his food away, suddenly lacking an appetite.

"Real nice, Higgins." Timothy drawled over his liquorish stirred beverage.

By his side Amir cast him a warning glance. Clearly Timothy had not been sleeping again and those large bags under his eyes were rather telling. For all the good the boy could be, he was a nightmare while running on three hours of sleep. Kallie was liable to snap back at him but even she recognized that he was overtired and a fight would go nowhere, so reluctantly she conceded and steered the conversation in a different direction.

"It's still pretty scary." Higgins mumbled, a gloom falling over the table at the words.

Avery didn't have anything to say.

His mind had gone unsettling silent. All he could see was the memory of the poorly dressed, beanstalk of a student he'd seen enter the university five years prior. He saw every little moment, word and expression, all of it ran through his mind but there was no coherent thought. No great revelation, no 'of course! There was the clue, there was the sign!' It was not because there were no signs, but because Jonathan's entire existence had screamed warning – and yet somehow Avery never acknowledged it.

Five years and he'd never once focused enough to clear away the doubts. Never for a second took Jonathan aside to question him, to simply ask if perhaps he was okay. Instead Avery had matched wits with him and enjoyed the moments they could share discussion. He had failed on a fundamental level. Was it really so hard for him to see the obvious? Was it really so impossible for anyone to look Jonathan Crane in the eye and simply ask if he was alright?

Five years later, with nothing but missed opportunities and the result was this. Six dead – now adding onto it the suicide of the professor that had taught Crane most closely, which was apparently no more an accident than the other five bodies. Six dead and a once brilliant mind behind the bars of Arkham Asylum.

And Avery Hale was  _furious_.

The second opinion sneered, twisted and roared in protest. Avery could almost hear that imagined presence scratching at the insides of his skull, grating its nails against the bone sending searing pain through his body. He resisted the notion – it was simply a manifestation of his frustration. Professor Avery Hale was not crazy, he did not believe in possession anymore than he believed that a ghost may speak to him. This was just how his mind reacted…it was explainable.

But the scratching was agonizing and Avery for the first time in what felt like many years screamed back into the void of his own mind.

' _Stop_!' He roared, the echo of his own voice filling the space where the scratching had torn at his mind. 'No matter how upset you may be. No matter how distraught, confused, betrayed or afraid – you  _cannot_  act like this! You cannot be as petty and mindless as a tantrum throwing infant!'

The scratching ceased and there was silence.

Avery, only now aware of how tightly bunched his muscles had become, slowly let out a breath of relief. The small internal argument was invisible to the outside world and around him his students continued their discussion while he pretended to read over Timothy's thesis for a third time. The silence was short lived and through the quiet Avery felt a prickle of complaint. The presence was sulking.

Feeling rattled by his own…unusual coping mechanism, Avery opted not to speak into the empty space again. He instead ignore it as he would any other day. Even as the lingering sense of anger and distress remained – he operated without reaching back inside. Just for today he could avoid it, just for today he didn't need to pry himself open and see what it was lurking just under his conscious thought.

"Professor." Amir spoke to him gently, almost privately with how he lowered his voice to pass between just the two of them. "This may be out of line. I understand that you and dr. Crane may have been…friends, this must be difficult for you. Please, if you need time-"

"Mr. Pots." Avery cut in gently. "While I appreciate the gesture, this no more effects me than any of you. Besides Dr. Crane and I were hardly friends merely-…well I respected him. I would like to think it was mutual but I suppose there is a lot we failed to understand about Jonathan."

He was a kind boy to be worrying about him but Avery was more concerned for the students. These ugly affairs were more than enough to scare many into consider leaving the university. With them now down six teaching positions the university would be scrabbling to replace them.

Looking around the table over his own simple coffee cup, Avery felt a twinge of fear for his students. Kallie was her usual self, mostly grins and quips. Mostly often directed at Sam, the poor fool, or on a good day, Timothy. The latter was still exhausted and Avery could practically hear him going over his mental notes from class from his end of the table. Timothy never switched off and to some extent it concerned Avery. A man so young and bright deserved a break every once in a while. At least long enough to sleep for more than three hours at a time.

Then there were Molly and Sally, the pair hadn't said much since the topic of Crane was raised. Avery didn't presume to know exactly what emotions were flying around in the girls. While Amir and Kallie had both attended Crane's classes to lukewarm receptions, Sally and Molly were a bit different. Sally had been rather enraptured with the teachings of fear while attending Crane's lectures and Molly had positively fled from there, going so far as to drop the class.

Now both girls were deathly silent at the mere mention of the man. Perhaps it was the shock of what had happened. Even in Gotham there were still events that could steal people's words for a time. For now everyone would simply have to find their footing again on their own.

Avery intended to start right away.

As he stood the conversation abruptly stopped. Realising his unexpected movement had jarred the students into thinking he had something greatly important to say, Avery was quick to put on an apologetic smile and wave away their attentions.

"Sorry, I do have to mark all of these for you." He explained, idly fluttering the papers. "So I'll be heading off a little earlier than expected."

His well meaning lie passed for a few of the gathered students but Avery caught the lingering stare from Amir and Timothy. Neither believed the haphazard lie but neither questioned him. Perhaps that was their version of kindness. Amir had insisted he take time to himself after all, Avery could only hope his students would do the same.

That day Avery left his students with the intention of putting all this unpleasantness behind him. Jonathan was clearly unhinged, brilliant of course, but unhinged all the same.

Part of Avery wanted to visit him in the asylum, wanted to ask him questions and see what it was that drove him so far off that edge.

But he didn't.

Avery was no more a friend to Jonathan than anyone else and there was no white lie good enough to justify his curiosity. Still the thought persisted longer than he was willing to admit. Sometimes he simply wished to pry into Crane's mind and pick apart the ugliness he found inside. And on other days, days where his expression gradually crumbled into a sad frown, Avery only wondered if a visit would do Jonathan any good.

He acted on neither impulse and the days dragged on. Since that day Avery all but entirely cut out the discussion of fear in his classes – too fresh a wound. The university opened its doors once again and Avery returned to his life with only the shadow of Jonathan Crane falling over the university. Sometimes he felt it chasing at his heels, resentful and furious with him for his dismissal of the discovery Crane had inspired in him only months earlier. But whenever Avery turned, half expecting himself to truly see the shadow of scarecrow clinging to his feet, it was always just his own figure staring back at him.

It no more left Avery's mind than it did the rest of the university. It always lingered just under the surface, long after the whispers stopped and the off colour jokes faded into obscurity. No one truly forgot.

Before he knew it a year had passed and Avery had not once stepped foot in the asylum.

Things were changing on the outside. The Bat became more prominent with every passing month and Avery found himself feeling rather blasé about the whole ordeal. Batman had proved himself to be a competent crime fighter and Avery had no doubt in his good intentions.

While debates on his effectiveness and morality whipped up and spiraled violently out of control around him, Avery took a step back from it all with an exceedingly simple take away.

"The Bat is merely a man doing what he believes to be right for his fellow man." And Avery Hale had never begrudged any man for that.

Gotham slugged on for another year and Avery greeted the new students and familiar returning faces with a ready smile. He'd seen some of his kids graduate the year before and was exceedingly pleased with their efforts and the results. But the influx of new faces always inspired in him an even greater enthuse.

It was this year that Avery met perhaps his finest student.

"Christopher." Avery caught the young man before he left the lecture hall, a beaming smile on his face. "I was curious about your thesis on the last paper."

"You gave me a distinction." Christopher recalled.

"Yes, yes – the paper was excellent. But I still find myself curious, why on earth did you choose the stance you did?"

The university had the same flaw as almost all educational institutions. The stagnation of free thought.

Avery had seen it becoming more prominent with every passing year and it left a sour taste in his mouth. Watching at the university became increasingly less interested in actual intellectual debate and merely wanted the students to repeat back to them a preapproved answer.

Avery had been absolutely furious the first time he was instructed to deduct marks for opinions that were not, and he very clearly remembered the wording,  _correct_.

Imagine that, an incorrect opinion on the interpretation of poetry. Avery could not have been more appalled.

With that in mind, he entirely understood Christopher's initial standoffishness when questioned about his thesis. Which was taking the exact opposite stance to the one that the university was gunning for. Avery had been extremely smug when he went over the paper and found that the boy's sources were airtight, his references and quotes all perfectly annotated and his argument compelling. He'd been able to fight for his right to present an unpopular opinion and Avery had the great pleasure of handing him a high mark for an argument well made.

Favoritism was unbecoming of a teacher but Avery had never shied away from it in the past. His students all knew who he favoured and it was almost always those that  _wanted_  to be there. And Christopher Lincoln was irrefutably his current favorite.

Once upon a time a now condemned man had held that position.

Christopher, now realising that his teacher did not intend to berate his efforts to fight for his right to  _think_ , became bashful. Avery found it amusing how the boy shied away from genuine accolades. Modesty was a truly wonderful trait in one so brilliant, although Avery worried it might limit him in some ways.

"I just…" The boy shifted weight from foot to foot restlessly. "I wasn't going to lie just to suit their opinions. So I fought for mine."

Avery Hale welcomed Christopher Lincoln into his life with a smile and for a while, all thoughts of Scarecrow and Jonathan Crane were chased from his mind.

In the coming weeks Avery began to notice an unusual trend with his students. It was as though something had changed while he wasn't looking and abruptly some of his finest kids were failing to appear in class. The first real alarm bell went up when Higgin's turned in a paper that was clearly a first draft. Judging by the several mistakes in the first line alone and the lack of sourcing – she hadn't even read it over a second time herself.

Now Kallie Higgins had never been as detail driven or clean cut as some of her peers. She was a more outgoing girl that tried to juggle a healthy dose of real life and university work. Avery had always thought that she managed to the two exceedingly well while others occasionally dropped more into one or the other.

Despite this she was quite bright, and for what she lacked in polish she made up for ten times over in effort and ferocity. While her work had never quite been at the same level as say Timothy or Amir – she'd never handed in a first draft before.

So to see such flimsy work coming from her was nothing short of shocking.

At first Avery didn't know what to make of it, hardly even knew what to say to her when the marks were handed back. Nothing immediately came to mind except, 'why'? What had happened to throw her so far off her game?

Before he knew it the shock had given away to a niggling feeling of uncertainty. Of  _concern_.

Something had to be wrong. Avery had always, and would always, extend the offer to students to come to him with their problems. Very few had ever taken him up on that offer in the past but he made sure each and every one of them knew he was there. No need to book a time, no need to call ahead – if they required him for anything, ranging from school to personal dilemmas, he was there.

Kallie most certainly knew this but over the coming weeks she did not once appear in his office afterhours and soon she returned to something like normality. A quick apology for her drop in work and the promise to do better on the next one and things ought to have gone back to their normal pace.

But then suddenly she stopped coming to classes as well. Not just his own, Avery overheard one of the new lectures commenting on her absence. It was alarming because that was her core topic, where her true passion lay.

"Christopher." Avery began one evening after the student body had mostly cleared out.

The young man glanced over his shoulder, a bundle of books still balanced carefully in his arms. "Yeah, teach?"

Christopher had become something of a permanent fixture in Avery's life. He'd gone from being an attentive student to barging into Avery's work space and requesting a job in his first few months.

Needless to say Avery's office had never been better organized than it was since the boy's arrival. Having an assistant certainly had its perks.

"Do you find me unapproachable? I am not intimidating am I?" He asked curiously, setting down the paper he'd been trying to read over. He would have finished it five minutes earlier had his mind not kept wandering to the subject of Kallie.

"No offense, sir. But you're not the slightest bit intimidating." Christopher chuckled, setting down the heavy leather bound books with a small 'oomph'. "Why? Having trouble with your image?"

"Nothing of the sort." Avery quickly dismissed the idea, labeling it childish. "It worries me that the students may not think they can come to me with their issues."

"Well you are a university professor – not a kindergarten teacher." Christopher pointed out and Avery again marveled at the boy's complete lack of verbal filter. He didn't seem at all concerned with being formal around his professor. Admittedly not many students were in this day and age.

Perhaps he had a point. His students might have always been children in his mind, but they saw themselves as perfectly mature young men and women. They seemed to think that with just two decades on this planet they had all the wisdom of the world.

"That aside, they should know I am willing to assist them should they ever need it." Avery grumbled, only now hearing how morose he must have appeared. It was difficult to not come off as glum as he watched a student of three years unravel in front of his very eyes. "I would hope that to some at least I might be a friend."

Christopher stopped what he was doing, paused to think for a moment and then finally turned to look at his professor.

"Teach, I know that a bunch of us think you're great, and yeah some of them would think of you as a friend but it's a bit weird. People don't make that much of a relationship with their teachers anymore."

The boy was, unfortunately, right.

Most days it was a simple in out system. The students came in, learned all they needed to scrape by with a passing grade and then they left. Most often only having his classes maybe ten times that semester. They could hardly be expected to form any sort of relationship with their teachers, which made trust very nearly impossible.

Despite himself Avery found his mind wandering back to his own learning days. Perhaps he had been the odd one, the one that talked to teachers outside of class and readily placed himself in their care. It might have just been he who was the odd one out.

Then again.

"And you, Christopher?" Avery asked, tone still curious albeit a tad reproachful.

"Well me, teach." Chris answering grin was positively beaming and far too mischievous for the boy's own good. "I'm just a weird one."

With a tired smile Avery decided to accept Chris's attempt to reassure him and return to the papers he was supposed to be grading. He was going to be here all night it seemed. "Don't feel obliged to stay late Christopher. Don't you have nightlife to indulge in? You youngsters seem rather fond of that."

"Oh please." Christopher scoffed, giving Avery a wry smirk. "You're old but you're not  _that_  old."

The fact that Christopher was half his age made Avery think otherwise. Still he didn't make any further protests as Christopher gathered up his novelty coffee mug – one the young man had actually bought him – and made to leave the room with the promise of more coffee in his near future.

Bemused Avery watched Christopher going with a small shake of his head. The young man was too lively to be cooped up in the university at night, but he could hardly force the man into a blossoming social life.

"Call if you need anything." Christopher added on his way out the door and Avery simply waved him off, returning to his work.

Despite his recent concerns Avery had to admit that this was nice. This felt right to him, just going about his books and papers with his students moving through their own lives. He hadn't felt this satisfied or secure in years.

For once it felt as though he didn't need to dig inside of himself and pull anything apart. For a short while Avery was at peace.

And then Kallie Higgin's appeared at his door.

It was storming and miserably cold that night – not unusual for Gotham in the winter season – so when Higgin's suddenly appeared outside of his study door, long after class hours and dripping wet, Avery was naturally alarmed. She stood there quietly, hand still raised to knock at the door after the first tap had pushed it just out of her reach, she hadn't been expecting it to be open and now she seemed lost as to what to do next.

Avery was out of his seat in an instant, approaching Higgins cautiously.

"Miss Higgins?" The girl took one look at him, saw the concern in his eyes and she just felt apart.

"Oh Kallie. Kallie sweetheart what's wrong?" She was sobbing, shoulder shaking violently and Avery stood, helpless as this little ray of sunshine curled in on herself, crying her eyes out.

She was trying so hard to speak, the painful sobs forcing themselves up through her throat choking the explanations before she could so much as form a syllable. Quickly Avery took the girl by the shoulders, ushering her down into his seat. He didn't rush her, instead he just pulled out the tissues from his drawer and laid his jacket over her shoulders. The poor girl was soaked through her trembling half a result of the chill in her bones and half the force of her grief.

When words began to final join her hopeless gasping and sobbing – they were unintelligible. The most Avery could make out was a mantra of apologies. As to what she had to be sorry for her couldn't quiet say. When she started whispering soft pleas to an unseen god Avery decided he'd had quite enough.

Standing straight as he could with the aid of his cane, Avery turned for his phone. Catching the movement Kallie became frantic reaching out to catch his sleeve with a desperate look in her eyes.

"Please." She hiccupped. "Please, don't call anyone."

"I won't, I won't." Avery hushed her quietly, promising not to bring any more attention to her. "Just a cup of hot chocolate, how does that sound? Just a warm drink and a towel – Christopher will bring them, I won't tell him anything. You're safe here."

Gradually Kallie released his sleeve and returned her hand to her chest, hiding under his jacket as best she could. The crying hadn't stopped but her small moment of clarity put an end to the fully body shaking sobs.

It was unnerving, seeing such a sunny, prideful child suddenly stripped of all their bravado. Avery wanted to ask, wanted to know what had happened to push one of his best students to this breaking point. But he didn't. Avery waited. Kallie needed to adjust, to work through the initial wave of grief and then when she was able to – it was her choice to tell him.

So he waited, put in the call to Chris. Said he'd like that cup of coffee a little sooner than expected– and added that coffee was no longer on his mind. Hot chocolate, as sugary and milky as possible. Avery knew Chris well enough to guess he had an inkling that the cup was not for Avery, but much like himself – Chris knew when to bite his tongue. He'd ask later, but not until after that hot drink was in his teacher's hands and Kallie was taken care of.

Avery was ever grateful to Christopher for his quick pace and diligence. The blanket and hot chocolate were being passed through the door, opened only as wide as it needed to be, within three minutes. Avery thanked Chris in a quiet voice and ignored the small flicker of the young man's eyes as they went over his shoulder and into the room. He wouldn't see Kallie; the best Chris could have caught was a glimpse of the back of Avery's jacket on someone's small frame.

He didn't ask. Simply nodded and told Avery to call if anything else came up. The offer was given much more solemnly than it had when he first left the study early that night.

When Avery returned to Kallie's side, holding out the drink carefully to the young girl, the tears were still present. Her eyes were red and puffy, the poor dear's face blotchy with her makeup running in places. But she was able to breath again, no more heaving or choked sobs.

Just when Avery thought maybe things could calm down, Kallie spoke. "I'm sorry." She whispered, voice hoarse and think as a result of her crying.

"It's so stupid." A pause. "I'm so stupid."

Ever single fiber of Avery's being reared up in protest and his disapproval must have screamed through in his expression because Kallie looked away quickly. Turning her eyes down to the hot mug clasped between her still shaking fingers.

"Kallie." Avery began, voice struggling to find the right mix of stern and compassionate when addressing the upset student. "You are many things. Many incredible, often infuriating things –  _stupid_  is not among them."

The small laugh Kallie offered up in response was pitiful and didn't convince Avery in the slightest. She didn't look back up at him and Avery caught her staring intently at her own reflection.

"Who on earth put those thoughts in your head?" He wondered aloud, speaking his thoughts without the good sense to censor them.

There was a few seconds where Kallie didn't answer and Avery began to expect that she had no intentions of doing so. Then her fingers twitched around the mug, causing Avery to worry that she was letting the heated ceramic burn her skin, and Kallie spoke again.

"It  _is_  stupid." She insisted with a little sigh. "Sticks and stones, ya know? It's not important, I'm sorry I bothered you, teach."

"Kallie." Avery cut in before the girl could talk away her own worth. He laid his hand gently against her how, urging the girl to look at him even though the tears in her eyes felt like small knives to his chest. A failure he hadn't known he could feel curled tightly in his chest, making it difficult to keep his breathing even. "You can tell me anything, dear."

Something in Kallie broke and he watched with no satisfaction as she gave in, producing her phone from her pocket. Avery didn't utter a single word as she unlocked it and flicked through a series of pages. Aery would have been lost in the interface, technology was hardly his strongest suit but Kallie navigated her phone as if it were the back of her hand. He couldn't pinpoint why this bothered him until the exact moment she slid the phone into his hands, not offering a single word. She waited patiently for him to read and Avery felt his heart growing colder with every word on the screen.

Hundreds upon hundreds of messages. Some as long as the papers his students would hand in, others little more than three words – all abhorrent. Confused and horrified by the things he was reading, everything from death threats to simple cruel comments, Avery couldn't for the life of him figure out why these things were on Kallie's phone.

Why there was so much anger being directed at one of his students?

As if sensing his confusion, Kallie began to speak again. Her voice was only marginally stronger than it had been moments ago, still thick with tears. "I…well I changed all my social media when I moved to Gotham." She told him quietly. "I thought if I changed my name and didn't post pictures of myself then I could leave all this behind."

"How long?" Avery asked, unable to rip his eyes away from the messages he scrolled through. There was weeks worth of unanswered messages here. "How long-…When did this start?"

"When I was in high school. Back at Keystone…" Kallie was wringing her hands now, still shivering slightly under his heavy coat. "It was just one stupid night. I went out with friends, or I thought they were friends anyway… We were drinking, having fun. There was this guy, he made some moves but I wasn't interested…I mean how could I be?" She paused glancing up at Avery with something like fear, like she doubted he'd accept even this part of her.

Briefly Molly passed through Avery's mind and how happy the pair seemed when they were together. Avery tried to let his reassurance and acceptance show on his face but the muscles seemed stiff, stuck in that expression of grief left in the wake of reading such rot.

"I told him I wasn't interested. He got mad. Said I was leading him on, got handsy…got violent."

A surge of white-hot rage passed through Avery, fingers tightening around Kallie's phone. Very nearly cracking the screen under the pressure. But he didn't interrupt, didn't say a single damn thing. It wasn't his place to speak yet, Kallie wasn't finished but how he wished she was. Instead it just continued to get worse.

The disbelief from her parents, the blame from her peers and then finally the harassment. Even in his hands he could see all parts of this. People behind fake names accusing Kallie of being a liar, faking her sexuality – making up the story. Then there came the petty insults, the name calling that Avery couldn't see as anything other than childish. Some were single worded messages, ugly, slut, liar – words that Avery decided he didn't want to dedicate his brain power to memorizing.

All complete rubbish, all over his student's screen. But it was just a screen…Avery thought about shattering it again but knew it wasn't his to break.

"I moved to Gotham and for a while it stopped. The bruises faded and the words stopped coming." Kallie explained quietly. "Put it behind me, you know? I don't know who but someone recognized me and now it's all the same." There was nothing more than exhaustion in the girl's voice, a resignation that made Avery's heartache. "They are just words." She added tiredly. "I can turn off the phone and move on. It's fine. I'm fine."

"You shouldn't have to." Avery murmured gently but Kallie just shook her head.

"People are always like this. It doesn't matter, I can just turn it off." Avery didn't stop her from taking the phone from his hands despite his desire to keep the toxic thing away from her. "What bothers me most is knowing that no one believed me. That this guy I thought was a friend could do the things he did and then come out of it somehow a hero while I became trash… I don't care much about some stranger's words but knowing that I'm not the only one dealing with this pisses me off."

"There are other people out there that can't just turn it off or brush off words. People that hurt themselves." Then she laughed, a desperate, hopeless sort of sound. "Kids that actually might listen because someone said they should kill themselves."

The tears were back and this time Avery didn't hesitated to wrap Kallie up in a tight hug. Kallie continued to mumble things about it being unimportant and stupid but Avery didn't share the sentiment. At the very least not in the way she felt it. The actions of these people were incredibly thoughtless, true, but they had an impact on Kallie and so they became far from meaningless.

Mob mentality, Avery considered dryly as he rubbed soothing patterns against Kallie's back, was a horrible thing. It was the most repulsive concoction of dehumanizing one person or peoples and moving without stopping to think beyond the mob. After all it was easy to abandon personal beliefs when the group was getting riled up. Avery understood this animalistic tendency in people, even good movements relied on this same mob structure – it was dangerous.

The collapse of common human decency under the roar of a single minded mass. He'd thought too small, isolated one parasite when there were creations like this of multiple entities. Perhaps the mob would disperse if the core were cut out. Perhaps…

Avery's shoulders tensed as his mind began to slip away from him, moving away with the other presence's anger. He was quick to draw it back, quick to put a stop to any further pondering.

No, he told himself sternly. Not now, not while Kallie is here crying in our arms. Nothing else matters.

The second opinion conceded and he could almost feel it curl itself around Kallie in a protective embrace. He knew it was impossible for the sensation to truly touch Kallie – it was not a physical being, but its intentions felt clear to him in that moment. An attempt at comfort from an imagined existence, Avery couldn't help but find it at least vaguely humorous. This one student was worth more than any of its anger, the people who hurt Kallie were not worth putting above her – even in the ways the presence would have liked to. Their students came first – the rest of the world could wait for them.

His one indulgence. The one thing he readily placed before his protection of an ideology. These kids meant more than the world to him. The presence purred contentedly in reply to the influx of compassion towards the students. They so rarely disagreed as it was and when it came to these kids, they  _never_  disagreed.

But he knew that once Kallie's smile return and the tears vanished – the presence would once again rear up and turn its attention onto the world. Avery was unsure of if he'd allow it when the time came.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look who is back.

A fortnight later and little had changed. True to his word, no matter how infuriating it was, Avery kept the entire event between himself and miss Higgins.

Christopher had asked of course. Not with his questions, he knew better than to openly pry after Avery escorted Kallie home. But his eyes followed Avery for days, begging him as best they could without words. The professor tried his damnedest to pretend not to see how desperate Christopher was to know and hoped he would eventually take the hint.

He knew the precise moment that Christopher gave up.

It came with a heaving sigh and whine of defeat as the young man slumped gracelessly over his desk. Avery had smiled to himself, indulging in the sight for a few seconds before continuing on with his work as though he'd seen nothing at all.

Kallie returned to classes, visibly worn by her experiences. But she came all the same and Avery always found his eyes lingering on her. Taking in her pale complexion and the increasingly dark circles under her eyes. Every time her phone lit up, buzzed, so much as garnered a  _glance_  out of the girl, Avery felt himself stiffen.

His imagination supplied more than enough suggestions for what might be appearing on that screen. Most of which were dispersed once he saw Kallie relax of quickly shoot off a reply of her own. She'd told him that she'd never responded to those kinds of messages and so the sight always eased his nerves.

Things had gotten better over the past fortnight, at least a little. He and Kallie had discussed leaving all the old contacts behind. Kallie had not been excited to give up her many social media accounts – Avery couldn't keep up with some of the names she threw out. Tweets he knew about and he'd heard Tumbling get mentioned a fair bit but honestly beyond that Avery was lost on the whole ordeal.

Regardless she'd closed them all down. Avery was alarmed to see she'd had something close to seven different sites. He didn't endeavor to ask what they were all for and instead just helped her through removing and blocking things. Of course he supplied more comfort than technical support.

That wasn't to say she'd completely cut herself off. Kallie had gone out and gotten herself a new phone number and was still able to frequent movie watching sites and things that did not personally relate to her. Avery's concerns diminished somewhat when he saw Molly approaching Kallie again. The girl positively lit up for Molly, even though she was burning so dimly the rest of the day. Comforted that she wouldn't be alone with all this social isolation Avery was able to continue on with his lessons mostly as normal.

Although there one was a slight change.

"Professor." Avery almost jumped. Surprised by the sudden address.

His students, at least most of them, were in no way light on their feet. Especially not after one hour of a two hour lecture. The break was little more than five minutes and Avery had expected them to spend it continuing their naps of making a quick break for it, hoping no one would notice their absence in the second half. Usually those that left were replaced by those that were showing up midway, either too sleepy to force themselves up before or too much of a mess to manage it there on time.

However Amir had always been an exception to this rule.

The young man had silently snuck up on Avery, even though it was extremely unlikely that was his intention, and given the professor a start. Amir had little reaction to Avery's harsh jump besides a slight upward perk of his brow. He didn't wound Avery's pride further by offering an apology.

"Sir, have you noticed anything unusual around the campus in the last week?"

The question threw Avery off for a second. He at first thought that somehow Amir had heard about what happened a fortnight earlier but once the initial shock dwindled away Avery found the question and Amir's passive expression didn't at all lend itself to this possibility. Amir might have been business first but he was hardly emotionless and he'd displayed loyalty to his fellow classmates in the past. Kallie was as much his peer as anyone else in the class.

"You'll have to be more specific." Avery began uneasily, trying to think of anything that might have been out of the ordinary.

"Things aren't working." Amir replied sternly. He waited and when it seemed that simple explanation did nothing to inform his professor, Amir took a small breath and tried again. "The maintenance hasn't been getting done."

Avery sighed, both in relief and slight exasperation. The university was an extremely old building and things were more often than not, broken. Usually it fell to one worker to go around the university each night and see what wasn't working. Usually to find the answer was, more often than not, everything.

He'd seen the man around during the evenings he stayed late. Tinkering with the air vents or checking the light bulbs. Avery wasn't much of a practical man and any knowledge he had on fixing things was purely theoretical. The sort of person who could tell you how the car worked but couldn't change a wheel to save his life. So of course he was quietly in awe of the handyman and never endingly thankful for his work.

It seemed he was one of the only among his colleagues that felt as such. Avery had caught them making snide comments about the 'uneducated' worker. It had left the same bitter taste in his mouth that their gossiping about Crane once had. They'd picked him apart for everything, as though they were nothing more than childhood bullies.

Honestly, Avery found more to be admired in the hard working of a high school drop out than in any of their highly educated chatter.

Which was why he was a little confused by Amir's comment. Admittedly he hadn't seen the man around for most of the week but he also hadn't been staying as late as he usually would. With Christopher helping him, things got done an awful lot faster.

"Perhaps Mr. Jones is sick." Avery suggested mildly, remembering the last time he'd seen him.

Avery had just caught a glimpse of Jones passing by his office one night. He'd recognized the usual uniform and uttered a distracted hello. It hadn't bothered him when he got no verbal reply at the time, just a small inclination of his head before Jones disappeared down the hall probably to vanish into his service room.

Now he wondered if he should have taken that as an ill omen, perhaps Jones was already feeling under the weather? "He did look awful gaunt this Monday. He may have taken a few days off."

The university was hardly going to put someone in his place for a few days. They'd let things go broken just to save a few dollars and once again Avery's ire was peaked.

Amir's slightly sour expression spoke much of the same. "Are we expected to work in the dark?"

Avery mustered a small wiry smile at the comment. "Come tomorrow, if Mr. Jones hasn't returned, I'll approach the dean and see what can be done." He promised, hoping to sooth Amir's frustrations even as his own rose.

With a stiff nod Amir turned back towards his seat, being one of the few that stayed for both halves of the lecture. Avery himself was only in charge of one half of the lesson and he noticed some students would only stay for his or would leave once he began speaking. He was pleased to note that all of the students that he tutored stayed for both segments on most days.

"Mr. Skit didn't sleep again I see." Avery noted, looking up towards the seat that was officially claimed by Amir and Timothy. "I don't suppose you could convince him to look after himself a little more?"

"If Timothy was going to listen to me he would have started when we were kids." Amir replied flatly, staring up at the snoozing boy.

"Well, if I might be so bold as to suggest, perhaps taking young Timothy out after class to see Miss Day?"

It was one of those rare occasions when Amir's expression truly became animated. A cheeky smirk appearing on his face. "He thinks he's sly."

Poor Timothy had been smitten with Sally Day from day one of class. It seemed the only person in the world oblivious to this was Sally herself. Not that it mattered, the two were painful to watch, wall flowers dancing around one another in the hopes one might be brave enough to take that first step.

"Take care of him." There was no need to ask but Avery still allowed the words to slip out as he shooed Amir back to his seat. "Someone ought to."

Amir paused, glancing back in the direction of his professor with an almost unreadable look. For a moment Avery thought Amir would keep the thought to himself but after a second of consideration, Amir managed a small smile. "He fancies himself my protector. I'll try not to wound his pride."

If there was anyone that needed protecting in that family, it certainly wasn't Amir. The comment was made in jest but the hint of truth behind it gave Avery reason for pause. His mind going back to his discussion with Christopher a week earlier and his position as a teacher, not a friend.

There were moment where that didn't seem to be the case. At least for a few of these young men and women, Avery Hale felt as though he was worthy of being a friend. He hoped that when they eventually went out into the real world, no longer restricted, or indeed shielded, by the education system – that they'd check back in from time to time.

Watching them grow into proper adults would be the greatest achievement he could strive for.

As the lesson settled into its second half and Avery took a backseat to another lecturer, the new psychology professor, his thoughts wandered to more pleasant pastures.

He'd outgrown his childhood obsession. Moved past his need to mentally rip himself to shreds and stitch it all back into something respectable. The nagging urge to know himself, to know others – it had become muted over time.

Now as he looked over the new minds of the world, the children sitting in those seats half his age and three times as bright, Avery felt at peace. Knowing that the world would move on once he faded and it would be left with them, it was more than enough to ease his mind. Society would out grow them in time as well and the next generation would be even brighter than the last, hopefully with that trend they would continue to progress.

There were a few lingering remnants of an old worldview. People his age and older sometimes still clung to those old ideologies and hindered the progress of their world, but they would be gone one way or another given enough time. SO long as they did not constrict their successors until their dying days – things would continue on smoothly. Satisfied, Avery decided to take a step back so to speak. He'd teach them all he could, and then leave the world in their hands. That was more than enough for him.

As a man that prided himself of being fairly optimistic while retaining at least some basic common sense, Professor Avery ought to have known this feeling of contentment would be extremely short lived.

Complacency had been the downfall of many, far superior men, than he after all.

…  
…

There was tapping.

A crow was perched by his lecture room window. Avery didn't think much of it other than a vague sense of irritation when the feathered pest began to caw, occasionally startling him and almost always derailing his train of thought.

The windows had been locked up tight for the coming winter months and the blasted beast made tapping at them its business. Avery spared the creature a brief scowl after it started up its tap, tap pattern for the fourth time.

At first he'd tolerated the bird with little agitation, not feeling the need to shoo it off as it took up sanctuary on the window ceil. The temperature had plummeted in the past few weeks and Avery hadn't taken it upon himself to push out any animals seeking pockets of shelter around the university rooftops.

This crow might be the first exception.

"Native wild life bothering you, teach?" Avery turned his glare from bird to boy and was met with Christopher's cheeky grin. Much to his frustration.

"I could smash it for you!" Kallie spoke up from her corner of the classroom, looking entirely too eager to do so. Molly didn't seem nearly as excited by the prospect and tried to get Kallie to sit back down. Avery eventually shook his head with a grating sigh.

"Leave the pest to its business." He decided, raking fingers through his hair. It felt as though the rest of him aged much faster than his hair had, meaning he still had a bit of blonde and wasn't fighting off bald patches just yet. Then again the rest of him aged faster than it ought to have in the first place, the fact his hair hadn't was just a minor reprieve. Small mercies. "I doubt it'll crack the window."

It tapped again.

The university, as old and decrepit as it might have been, was alarmingly sturdy. As were most buildings in Gotham. The architecture of the city mirrored its steely, unyielding temperament. Funnily enough the citizens also seemed to follow that trend. There was no part of Gotham that wasn't worn and hardened by its merciless city.

As a result, even the older buildings such as this, were able to hold their own against a mere bird. The university had extended in the past decade, adding newer buildings to its grounds, but this one was the original and the only one Avery actively taught in. It was where languages, philosophy, social sciences and psychology were all taught. The chemical labs had once been included here as well as the drama department but they had all fled the old timber building in recent years. Taking up residence in the newer structures that were better equipped for their needs.

Language and lessons that required nothing fancier than a sharp mind, a present body, a pen and sheet of paper were left to be taught there. Avery caught some students complaining about the lack of technology and others marveling at how creepy and ancient the building was. Personally he thought it served its purpose just fine, although now that winter was fast approaching, he was beginning to feel the cold through the comfortless wooden walls.

His coat served his well in the milder months but his body had never been able to combat the cold well on its own. He felt three times as frail in winter than during spring or summer. This winter, like any other in Gotham, was shaping up to be inhospitable.

This may have contributed to Hale's bad mood those past few hours. He'd tried to warm his face when speaking to the students, but some of his ill temperament must have shone through because Christopher had been fluctuating between overbearing and skittish. Trying to figure out which one would have his professor less irritated with his being there.

The teaching day was drawing to a close and it had been an extremely busy one at that. Today was the final day for any scheduled exams for the midterm and Avery was feeling the strain of it almost as much as the students. What came next was a nerve-wracking wait for them and a good few days marking for him. Then a well deserved break for a fortnight.

A few of the students were still finishing up in their other classrooms and Avery's own class had managed to complete their testing before the crow began it's damned tapping.

The sharp clack of its beak against the glass for a fifth time torn a flinch out of Avery, followed by another scowl in its direction.

"Maybe it's cold?" Sally suggested quietly, looking sadly in its direction. He could not empathize with her concern for the pest.

"It is pretty damn cold. Not like it would be any warmer in here with us. Why isn't the central heating working?" Timothy murmured, still dragging himself out of the mad panic he worked himself into whenever this time of year came around. With all his work finished hopefully he'd sleep more than four hours every night, Amir was still sitting by his side, evidentially content to wait till his friend was ready to leave.

Most students had left the moment they were able, a few had remained to chat or simply collapse for a few minutes before braving the icy winds to get home, and then there were Avery's kids. It had become something a joke that he had his own circle of favoritues. Avery was amused by it and would civilly deny such a notion if it rose with the other students or was suggested by a fellow teacher. But behind that polite denial, Avery's heart melted at the idea.

Since that day with Kallie, some things had changed. Molly, having been clued in at some point by Kallie, had become a permanent fixture in the other girl's life. There was scarcely a moment that Molly wasn't with Kallie and that meant that when Kallie stayed back to chat with Avery or Christopher – Molly also stayed.

For Amir and Timothy things were much the same as always. Although with Sally having some difficulty studying recently. At first Avery offered to tutor her but Sally said she couldn't afford to pay for his time and while he'd tried to offer it freely, Sally was an infamously nervous person and kept refusing on the idea that it was a waste of the professors time.

As a compromise Avery had been kind enough – arguably a touch cruel in some ways – and suggested she seek Amir and Timothy's help. He'd watched her ask, smiled when Timothy's usually sleepy eyes snapped wide and all his attention was fixed on Sally. He couldn't have agreed fast enough, Amir never even had the chance to offer his own services.

The result was all three remaining after lecture times to study at the back of the room while Avery went about his usual business. Amir had given him that knowing look while Timothy became increasingly flustered and animated with every tutoring session. It was good to see them smiling regardless.

Of this rumored favourite's gallery; Jessica, Simon and Sam were on the fritz. Most days Jessica would come and go on time and hand in good work without difficulty. She was there to pass the class and little else. Avery had always been impressed by her work and a little disheartened that she was more interested in the arts than literature. Simon was much the same, although he lingered behind in class on occasion to chat up Kallie or trade a few jokes with Timothy. Avery's class was fortunately void of any joksters, but Simon was perhaps the closest. He'd turned up late for the test that day and sheepishly dashed out only minutes earlier when Amir stated as much.

Usually Sam Wade was similar to both Jessica and Simon in his departures but the past few months had seen him staying after class to talk with Avery about his work. There was a hint of desperation to his lingering and while Avery had tried to subtly ask what was on his mind, Sam was skittish by nature and would usually flee when asked anything personal.

It wouldn't have taken much digging to find out about the Wade home situation or piece together the cause of his sudden need to deliver higher marks, having always lingered around the B or C mark. Of course, Avery Hale was not about to pry. Not unless this unusual behaviour became destructive or concerning – as of right now it was simply encouraging to see Sam striving to improve himself.

Finally there was Christopher.

Avery was guilty of favoritism without a doubt on this one. Christopher had first been a stunning student, and then made himself an extremely helpful assistant and over time also proven to be something close to a friend. Avery felt exceedingly old when with Christopher, the young man was full of life and Avery paled in comparison. However Avery still managed to run mental circles around Christopher – much to his student's frustration – when the need arose.

It usually only drove him to study harder and Avery often found Christopher slumped over an open book late into the night, long after he should have head home.

Christopher displayed a need for knowledge and a moral compass that Avery hadn't encountered before and felt no danger in encouraging him in every aspect of his curiosity. There were no lingering doubts or uncertainties as there had been with Crane and Avery hoped that given time, Christopher might surpass them both and leave Gotham for greener pastures.

The tapping at the window resumed.

"Alright you lot." Avery called, with a quick clap of his hands. "The weather is getting ghastly, time to head off."

"Aw, no way." Kallie complained, one headphone shared between herself and Molly. "You can't kick us out, the library closed up shop. Where are we going to hang?"

"Miss Higgins." Avery groused. "This is still a classroom."

"Yeah but it's our classroom, right?"

There was that little swell of affection again and Avery had to fight it back down. Kallie might not be as articulate as Amir or as naturally bright as Christopher – but she knew better how to twist someone with her words. She would have made a fine psychologist if she'd had even the faintest interest in helping people through their trauma.

"Charming." Avery drawled with a faint smirk. "But that's not going to change my mind. I don't want to be shuffling you lot off when the storm rolls in. You'll catch your deaths."

"We could carpool." Kallie replied offhandedly before seeming to really hear her own suggestion and suddenly jumping up excitedly. "We could all cram into your car! It'll be like a road trip!"

"A road trip around Gotham." Timothy chimed in dryly. "There's a bright idea."

"I'm sorry, did you want to go, eye bags?"

"Eye bags? Rich coming from you, string bean." Timothy flushed when his retort got a little giggle out of Sally. Whatever he'd been about to say got caught in his throat as his face turned red. Thankfully Amir was there to take up the baton.

"We don't want to go." He clarified. "But we can't stay if the professor leaves."

Despite speaking simple reason, Avery felt as though Amir was also trying to guilt him with the comment.

"What sort of children are you that you want to stay as school after hours?" He lamented, easing back into his seat seeing as this conversation was gradually skewering out of his favour. The motion was difficult and Avery noticed Christopher moving as if to assist him before remembering the professors slightly sour mood and refraining.

"Not children. Not a school. We're adults at university." Kallie remarked, only sounding faintly affronted by the child comment. "You're not that old, teach. I mean…wait how old  _are_  you?"

"Care to guess?"

"Uh…" Kallie paused, squinting in his direction before opening her mouth only for Molly to immediately clap her hand over Kallie's lips.

"She'll pass." Molly said sternly, giving Kallie a warning stare. Avery couldn't help but be amused by the pair, no doubt Kallie would have guessed insanely high or low – it was just how she was.

"Sir." Sally broke in with a sorry sort of smile. "Please?"

Christopher ended up looking at him along with the rest of them and Avery caved. He made a show of sighing despite hiding a smile behind the gesture. "Well go ahead then." He announced with a flippant wave of his hand. "Continue walking all over your elder's with those puppy dog eyes of yours."

The tapping started up again.

"Gone soft in your old age." Christopher told him as the group split back apart to do what they were already up to before he tried to usher them out.

Kallie and Molly went back to watching whatever it was on their phone that made Molly laugh that little snorting giggle she did every couple of minutes. Kallie looked as though she was only watching it to see those moments when Molly did laugh. While Amir and his foster brother continued to talk with Sally despite no longer needing to study for any tests. Sally had taken Avery's suggestion in a heartbeat after all, more likely than not she'd just needed the excuse to chat with them.

"Pretty sure I was born this soft. I never had a chance." Avery murmured back wearily to Christopher, who actually had no real business lingering in the classroom. He'd been talking with Sam briefly before the boy left but after that he'd merely been reading by Avery's desk.

This in itself wasn't unusual, Christopher seemed to have made the university his home as much as he could. He was there even on days where he hadn't a single class. If he wasn't helping Avery then he'd be in the library or sometimes just wandering the halls with a book in hand.

On occasion concern had wormed its way into Avery's mind. Wondering what his living condition was. Did he live with family or friend? Perhaps he had a single room on campus for himself and didn't like being cooped up? Avery knew it could have been a number of reason but he hadn't asked yet, thinking that if Christopher wanted to talk he would do so on his own time.

So he let the man be. Let him read his books while he turned his attention back to marking essays. The group went about their respective activities, waiting for the storm to show or for the night air to grow too cold.

The building was only marginally warmer than the outside air and Avery was beginning to think that the heating was well and truly broken. But he'd been sure that Jones was back, he'd seen him around that morning in fact. Perhaps it was a little more difficult than a simple fix? He'd have to ask around, see what could be done or he was going to suffer for it later. He simply wouldn't work well in the cold.

The tapping stopped.

"Um, professor?" Avery glanced up along with Christopher as a nervous voice came from the open doorway. Sam had returned, looking as though it had embarrassed him greatly to do so. "I can't get out?" He began uneasily. "I mean…um, the doors are locked?"

"Locked?" Avery repeated, the word not meaning anything to him at first. "The front entrance?"

Baffled when Sam nodded, Avery began to get out of his seat, needing his cane this time. His muscles were being particularly difficult that past week and his balance even worse. The cane that had once been half a necessity and half a novelty was now a requirement.

"The university isn't due to shut for hours yet." Avery said, as though he could simply explain away what Sam was telling him. Obviously words wouldn't unlock the doors that were not supposed to be shut in the first place and so Avery began to head for the front entrance on the ground floor to sort it out himself.

"I-I know that." Sam stammered, shifting restlessly as he skirted around Avery careful not to get in his road. "I was surprised too. So I tried the side exist bu-but it was locked too. I thought maybe…well maybe you might have a key?"

Avery paused only then remembering that he didn't in fact have his keys. There was a spare set that the staff used when they knew they were going to be staying late. It lived in the shared office space and Avery hadn't thought much of it when he saw it gone that morning. He was hardly the first person there and if another teacher planned to stay after hours there was no reason to not expect they'd take it first.

"No I…not today." Avery answered slowly, his hand coming to rest on the doorframe as he wondered what reason there'd be to lock the doors now.

"I can go check, teach." Christopher offered quickly and Avery noticed he seemed to be eyeing him with concern. He knew that he was a little worse for wear currently but he was perfectly capable of walking on his own. Perhaps it was his childhood frustration at not being able to walk without the assistance of leg braces that kept that stubborn streak in him alive but it almost had him outright refusing to let Christopher help him.

Thankfully common sense won out and he was able to nip that stubborn streak in the butt before it had him saying something unnecessarily sharp.

"Alright, Christopher you check the doors and I'll go see if one of the other teachers has the spare key. Then it might be time to head home for—"

There was a scream.

The shrill screech cut through Avery's words like a knife and filled air, standing every hair on end. As the screamer broke for air there was a moment of stunned silence among the students and Avery alike. Then the chaos began. That first scream acted as a trigger for at least twenty others.

Avery had been at the university for years now and while there were celebrations that sometimes got the students shouting or screaming, he'd never heard anything this raw or terrified in all his life. The screams were desperate and as the initial shock dwindled he caught some words being shouted amidst the shrieking.

Pleas mixed in with cries for help joined the wordless screaming quickly and Avery felt himself unfreeze. Something had just gone very wrong and no matter what it might have been, for right now there were students here that were, for the moment at least, safe. He intended for it to stay that way.

There was still some hesitance on the children's faces, as though they were still trying to decide how seriously to take the shouting. However Christopher seemed the first to begin moving and taking things seriously. After all he'd done the math.

Doors that should not have been locked suddenly being closed up tight followed by the chaos they were hearing from the lower levels was more than reason enough to act on the assumption that something dangerous was happening. There were no alarms that would tell if there was an intruder with a deadly weapon or a fire, no scent of smoke or gun shots either. And while Avery knew the procedures for either event inside and out, unfortunately they both had rather different reaction requirements.

"Teach, should we lock up the classroom?" Christopher demanded and Avery saw the calculation flying through his eyes as the echo of things being broken and doors banged on joined the commotion.

Should they stay, go or try to see if they could assist?

Avery wanted to help, wanted to see what had happened – but right now the most important thing was looking after these students here and now.

His first thought was to barricade the door just like Christopher suggested. The only exits were on the first floor and Avery could hear the chaos down bellow them, immediately ruling that out. They were on the third floor that day, putting them well out of safe jumping range.

Staying and locking themselves in to call for help was logical and Avery, despite not liking the idea, was about to say as much when…

"Teach!" Kallie screamed and leapt out of her seat, abandoning her phone as she grabbed Molly along with her. At first Avery didn't understand what was wrong, until he saw what it was Kallie had leapt away from.

The floor vent was overflowing with a disgusting murky cloud. It rose out of the vents at a deceptively leisurely pace. As if it had only just been able to crawl its way up and out. But it spilled over into the room at an alarming rate, chasing after Molly and Kallie's retreating feet.

That was gas.

"Everyone out!" Avery ordered, not that they needed much of his encouragement. They abandoned their bags and belongings without a second thought, rushing for the door as more and more of the gas poured into the room. It had appeared and only seconds later it seemed to be coming from everywhere, filling up the space quickly. The only thing that was even remotely comforting was the fact they could see it. Has the substance not been thick and instead slipped into the room silently they wouldn't have noticed anything until it was in their lungs.

"Where do we go?" Sam panicked looking between the hallway and the gas rapidly. "Where do we  _go_?!"

Christopher took one look at the room and then the stairs heading to the lower floors and decided. "Up." Kallie still had Molly by the hand as they ran past, the older girl dragging Molly for the stairs up. Molly was still trying to speak to Kallie, to ask her what was going on or something else entirely, it didn't matter Kallie was a single minded person and right now all that mattered was getting Molly somewhere safe.

Amir and Timothy came out after Sally, only slightly more hesitant to follow after Kallie. The echo of screaming downstairs got them moving with Sam chasing after them.

"What's upstairs?" Amir demanded as Christopher fell into step with him. "The windows on this level would break our bones if he jumped, what good does going higher go?"

"That gas came through the heating system. This an old ass building, you ever been to the tops of the east wing? They never bothered putting any heating vents up there. Theoretically…."

"You're hoping the gas won't rise." Timothy snapped, although he didn't stop moving upward.

"I'm sorry, do you have a better idea?"

"We can't stay here. Up is a better option than nothing,  _go_." Avery broke in sharply. It was enough to Amir and so it in turn was enough for Timothy who both shot off after the other students. However Christopher paused.

"Christopher, go." Avery ordered just as the gas began billowing out into the hallway behind them. More of the stuff was appearing from under the gaps of other closed up doors, it was everywhere. Or at least, going off what Christopher had said, everywhere connected to the heating system.

He took one look at the hallway and his professor and shook his head. "The cane is fashionable, but you're going to need a bit more than that." Christopher came back to him and offered his shoulder. This time Avery didn't hesitate to accept the assistance; his pride could be injured when they were safe from true injury.

The screaming only got worse from there, voices joining those on the first floor as they raced higher. Crying could be heard from the rooms leaking gas that they dodged. Avery had at first taken the sounds as warning signs but now they were almost a relief, a human couldn't make sound if they were dead. Of course he couldn't say that what was happening wouldn't be worse than simple death.

What were these fumes doing to them?

The east wing of the university had a few high tower like points that had long since been abandoned. They were storage and little more than that. Of course they'd been left untouched and should Christopher's theory prove correct that would be their safe haven till this was over and help arrived.

He and Christopher had just caught up to the rest of the group when Kallie shouted back to them. "This door is jammed!" Her anger didn't completely cover the fear behind her words.

While she struggled with the door Avery took notice of a few others students that had joined the ground, having seen them running and blindly joined them. A few he recognized and others were unfamiliar to him – all of them had the same expression of fear. Their little group of eight had expanded to roughly twelve and Avery felt both relieved to see others safe while simultaneously concerned that of all the people in the school only twelve seemed to have made it to this point.

"Why won't this damn thing open!" Kallie snarled, slamming her shoulder against it in an effort to force the door open.

There was a trick to opening that door. Avery had come up here in the past to have a look through the old physical records he was allowed to touch. He'd also sent students up there in the past, but only two. One of which he was currently leaning on for support.

Knowing this Christopher eased himself away from Avery and pushed past the others to get to the door. It was a mixture of pulling the door tighter shut and twisting the handle once in the opposite direction before jamming it open. Christopher pulled it off without a hitch and urgently ushered the other students inside before returning to Avery's side.

"A regular hero." Kallie remarked in what must have been an attempt at lightening the mood. It fell rather flat. Although Christopher still managed to muster a small smile in response before shuffling inside himself with Avery.

The second they were all inside Christopher pulled the door shut behind them while the rest of them vanished up the stairs to the old attic section of the east wing tower.

"Professor…" Christopher turned back to him, expression pinched with concern. "Are you alright?"

"Ha…this old man should be more worried about you lot." Avery answered, unwilling to admit that his bones were aching horribly.

Unconvinced, Christopher silently slipped back under Avery's arm and began to help him up the steps. Between Christopher and his cane Avery was able to keep an acceptable pace.

"How likely do you think it is that the gas won't rise?" Christopher muttered, only now voicing doubt in his own plan. "I was grasping at straws…"

"Typically natural gases rise." Avery muttered. He wasn't a chemist or a scientist by any stretch but he knew enough to hold out some hope for Christopher's actions. "I doubt very highly that whatever is pouring out of the central heating system is anything strictly natural."

They joined the rest of the students in the highest point of the school, likely the only two that had ever been there before.

The old tower had been left mostly to gather dust over the years. The files in here were almost all outdated and uselessly and the spare space had been used to throw unwanted things as well as store rarely used tools. Most of which were left scattered around carelessly. Back when the tower was still used the fireplace had been used to fight off the winter chill as opposed to the new central heating system. Now it was boarded up and left unused.

Despite the spider webs and creepy crawlies, this was the safest place they could hope for. Hiding among the forgotten papers and boxed up records.

A few of the kids were collapsed or leaning against the walls, wheezing while others had taken to checking on those present. Kallie was still uttering gentle questions to Molly to make sure she wasn't too scared. Despite that show of support, Kallie's fingers where trembling violently, giving away her own fears.

Sam looked like he was about to be sick and Sally was doing her best to comfort him while patting his back. Timothy was out of breath, sitting next to Amir among the dust and spider webs to try and catch their breath. Among the less familiar faces Avery could see Greg Tates who was currently taking a verbal bashing from his girlfriend, Rachel Kyles, for leaving her behind.

It was more a matter of who he couldn't see that concerned him. "Sam. Did you see Jessica at all?" He asked quietly, remembering the girl having left class only a few minutes before him. Sam's face paled and he nodded stiffly. "She…She was in the main foyer…I-I went to get you and she…stayed by the door." Avery's heart plummeted and Sam began to cry. "Why is this happening?  _What_  is happening?"

"A terrorist attack?" Christopher guessed uncertainly. Universities and government buildings were always targets but in Gotham they had so many of their own demons that it seemed ludicrous to even fear an outside force. It seemed as though Sam only cried harder at the suggestion.

"Right now it doesn't matter." Amir spoke up, his voice level despite being breathless. "Right now, the why doesn't matter. It's happening so we have to handle it."

"Yeah, you  _would_  say that." The sheer level of venom packed into those answering words momentarily took Avery's senses from him.

It was Rachel Kyles that had spoken, evidently pausing in her berating of Greg to turn on Amir. Timothy picked up on the tone quickly and abruptly his wheezing cut off and he was deathly silent, staring at Rachel as though she were a snake. Kallie's reaction was only marginally less severe.

"What the hell do you mean by that?" She demanded stiffly, hands clenched by her sides.

"How can we trust him?" Rachel hissed back without hesitation, gesturing wildly to a silent Amir. "He's probably in with them. You heard Christian, it was terrorists! How do we know he isn't one of them?"

Avery was aghast by what he was hearing. Potentially deadly gas forgotten as he tried to comprehend the things this girl was suggesting. Most of the others present seemed caught between varying degrees of uncertainty or discomfort right up to Kallie's level of rage. All except Amir, who remained quiet, simply watching Rachel speak ill of him with little reaction.

"You're fucking crazy." Kallie snapped taking a step forward like she intended to throw that clenched fist.

"Amir wouldn't do anything like this." Sally chimed in angrily. "He's a good guy!"

"He's a muslim." Rachel tossed back like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "This is what they do or has your stupid ass not been watching the news? Oh, I'm sorry – you were probably to busy being a crazy feminist online to notice."

Sally took a step back, eyes widening with both shock and disgust. It was only Molly's hand on Kallie's shoulder that stopped the older girl from leaving the imprint of her fist in Rachel's face.

"Hey, babe…" Gred tried to intervene. "Come on, lay off."

"What, you too, Greg?"

"W-Well no. But I mean…what if he, ya know, has a bomb or something?" Greg clumsily tried to appease Rachel and only managed to get a few disgusted looks in his direction.

"Well?" Rachel whirled on Amir again, jamming a finger in his direction. "Nothing to say for yourself? Being all silent, you're suspicious you get that, right? I bet you were in on it you fucking-!"

"Shut up."

Timothy was on his feet now, standing between Rachel and Amir. "Shut your damn mouth right now. You don't know a thing about my brother."

"He's not your fucking brother, your family just took his refugee ass in because they're rich and wanted to look politically co-"

_Smack!_

It wasn't Kallie that ended up hitting Rachel. Instead Timothy snapped in turn slammed his fist into Rachel's face, and snapping her nose. There was a sudden lash, a sharp thud and crunch followed by a moment of silence and then screaming. Rachel began to wail as blood spewed out of her nose.

"Timmy!" Amir was up in an instant, hands pressed to his brother's chest to push him away from the now profusely bleeding girl. "That's enough."

It didn't look like enough for Timothy. His hand was bleeding, a bone or two in his knuckles cracking themselves on Rachel's think skull, but it remained firmly clenched and trembling. He stared at Rachel like he wanted nothing more than to take another crack at her, to keep hitting till she stopped screaming.

Avery Hale looked at the violent expression on his student's face and for a moment didn't feel anything. It wasn't until the second opinion stirred, with it curling in the back of his head that finally he felt something. He felt the presence positively purring with approval.

How interesting…

"He fucking  _hit_  me!" Rachel screeched, pointing at Timothy like they hadn't all just seen it happen.

"I'll pick up where he left off if you don't shut your damn trap right now." Kallie snarled furiously but Avery felt she didn't really mean it.

"Babe,  _shh_ , shut up baby. Please shut up." Gred tried to hush Rachel urgently; he understood better than she did why they really wanted her to quiet down.

They didn't want to be heard.

"Tates." Avery spoke up as calmly as he could. "Take miss Kyles to the other side of the room and stay there." To Greg's credit he did just that, all the while trying to keep Rachel from saying anything else.

The tension had risen considerably and while any talking was lowered to hushed whispers, Avery could still hear almost everything being said.

Only one conversation really caught his attention however. Amir took his brother to the other side of the room in response to Greg moving Rachel away. He and Timothy were sitting down against the wall as Amir took a look at the now bleeding fist Timothy held. He didn't waste time pulling out his handkerchief – which his having in the past had amused Kallie – to wrap Timothy's knuckles.

All the while Timothy was still seething.

"But she said…"

"I  _know_  what she said." Amir cut across Timothy sternly. "That doesn't mean you can hit her."

"But she thought…they think… just because you're-!" Timothy stopped, unable to express the extent of his anger into words alone. "Why aren't you upset?"

"Well…" Amir smiled wearily up at his adoptive brother. "I never said it didn't upset me. Timmy, I'm always going to be a muslim. There is nowhere in America that won't mean something to people. But their just words, you can't go around hitting people for it."

"Words hurt." Timothy mumbled. "Certain people's words…what if politicians start? Then what?"

Amir paused, having just tied down the fabric around his brother's hand. "Then." He began gently. "We use our own words. We fight with them…not with our fists. We're worth more than that;  _you're_  worth more than that. You understand me, Timmy?"

Begrudgingly Timothy nodded but even from where Avery sat by Christopher's side he knew the agreement was made only as a means to appease his brother. Timothy didn't believe it, maybe over time he would but today he didn't. Today he hated Rachel for what she'd said.

For today her words were worth fighting over.

"They're going to kill one another before the gas even has the chance." Christopher murmured dryly and Avery couldn't help but give a small humorless chuckle in return.

"They're scared." Avery replied flatly. "Fear makes us do things we normally wouldn't. Miss Kyles is probably just speaking out because she's scared…not that it makes the rot that just fell out of her mouth okay."

"Oh,  _rot_. How colourful." Christopher grinned down at Avery. "I think that's the closest to a swear you've ever gotten, teach."

Choosing to ignore that bait Avery took note of the phone hanging from Christopher's hand. Its screen still illuminated with the emergency number dialed. Seeing Avery's stare Christopher sighed, jiggling the device slightly. "Everyone that isn't affected by that gas must be calling it…or maybe my phone really can't get more than one bar at a time. Bottom line, the police know. They'll be here eventually. We just gotta wait."

Avery nodded mutely, turning his gaze back out over the other students. The fear was still hanging in the air but at least it seemed that the tears were under control and Sam no longer looked like he was about to be sick. Although the blood on Timothy's hand and Rachel's face would be running for a while longer.

"You did well." Avery eventually said. Noting the way Christopher jumped to attention at the quiet word of praise. "Getting everyone up here. Christopher, you should be very proud of yourself."

The answering smile that Christopher offered him was dazzling and Avery found himself smiling slightly in response. "Just doing what is right."

That conviction meant the world to Avery in that moment. Christopher truly was everything Avery aspired to encourage in people, that core belief in right and wrong – fear be damned.

Suddenly the quiet was broken as one of the students collapsed to the ground and began to writhe.

The screaming had followed them.

Avery was on his feet quickly, almost too quickly as he nearly lost his balance. Thankfully Christopher was there to steady him enough and the pair approached the situation while the other students all quickly retreated from the now screaming boy's form.

"I-I swear he only touched it for a second!" Another student exclaimed as their friend began to shriek, covering his head with his hands, babbling about spiders or something along those lines. He was frantically kicking and rolling as if trying to shake an invisible creature off of him.

"What did he touch?" Christopher asked, managing to keep a surprisingly level head under the current circumstances.

"T-That gas. He was closest to it when it started coming through the vents but I swear he was fine until just now!"

"A delayed reaction?" Christopher muttered to himself, kneeling down by the thrashing young man. "We'll have to try and steady him until help gets here…maybe there's not too much in his system to be lethal."

"What do we do?" Sally muttered from off to the side. "He's being noisy…"

Kallie noticed Rachel opening her mouth and quickly cut across whatever she might have said. "If you suggest we throw him out I am going to break something more important than just you nose."

"But we still need to do something." Molly interjected. "He's going to hurt himself if he keeps moving like that…"

They were no closer to a solution when abruptly a different voice broke in. It cut across their bickering and the boy's screaming easily, a garble that was only barely human.

" _Three blind mice, three blind mice_ …" It whispered.

"What the fuck is that…?"

No one could seem to locate where the voice was coming from. Avery looked to the door they'd come in from but it was still shut up tight with no signs of gas entering it. The voice itself didn't sound like it was coming from beneath; rather it didn't seem to have an origin at all.

" _See how they run, see how they run._  Oh, and you ran so  _far_." The voice cackled, the sound bringing the hairs on the back of Avery's neck to attention. "Scampering on up here to escape my toxin, clever little mice. But alas, there's no outrunning fear."

The first cry of alarm, Avery momentarily mistook for one like the crazed screams of the boy on the floor, but it had come from Sally this time. She'd been huddled close to the fireplace.

A fireplace, which was now billowing out the same gas they'd encountered downstairs.

"Holy shit, are you kidding me? Everyone get out!" Kallie shouted, already pulling Molly for the door only to have it blocked a moment later as a lanky figure dropped down in front of it.

They hadn't seen it, hadn't even noticed the figure lurking up in the rafters until it uncurled itself and dropped down in front of their only escape route. Molly screamed in fright as the thing jerked upright with an unnatural grace, all the while the gas was beginning to fill the room, pooling around the ankles of those too close and chasing after those cowering in the corners of the room.

" _They all ran after the farmer's wife_ ," The creature rasped, continuing it's little nursery rhyme gleefully. " _Who cut off their tails with a carving knife."_

The initial fright had caught Kallie by surprise but after that first shock to her system she came back with a sharp offensive reflex, throwing out a chest high swing kick at the thing. Avery had never seen anything quite like how this thing moved; there was a horrible awkwardness to its swinging limbs but each movement felt purposeful. It bent and contorted itself to avoid Kallie's strike and respond with one of its own. Those long limbs snapped out and caught the young woman by the throat before flinging her into the nearby wall.

"Kallie!" Molly shrieked, trying to rush for the other girl only to be caught by the creature's stretching fingers.

"Scared?" It ventured, giggling behind it's mask.

"Let go! Monster, let me go!" Desperately the girl tried to pull away but the creature's fingers only tightened around her wrist to bone bending levels. It strangled a pained scream out of Molly and that was the sound the finally,  _finally,_ jarred Avery back into the present.

Or rather the second opinion went ballistic and Avery's body acted on it's behalf.

For a body such as his that had been wracked with chronic pains and weak bones all its life, Avery should not have been able to move with the grace that he did in that moment. But his body was momentarily forgotten along with the pain, as that other presence demanded something be done to stop this from playing out right in front of his eyes.

In an instant Avery stood in front of Molly, between creature and girl, with his cane jammed sharply between the thing's ribs.

"Release my student." Avery snarled as the creature made a nearly human sounding cough. It cringed and curled in around his cane, apparently able to feel pain just like anyone else. It did relinquish its hold on Molly, more out of surprise than any order of Avery's.

However abruptly the coughing turned to laughter and Avery realised that despite that small victory, they were still no better off. The creatures hands latched onto the cane and jerked it a little closer, pulling a startled Avery along with it.

" _Did you ever see such a thing in your life,_ " It murmured, almost whispering in that horrible garble. " _As three blind mice?_  Well, professor?"

The gas was almost filling the room now, it moved more slowly than the stuff they'd encountered earlier but they wouldn't have long now. They had to get out fast, but Avery couldn't seem to look away to even try and escape.

He was staring into the mask as though it were a real face, it was mocking him without a single muscle in use and Avery felt dread trickling ice cold down his spine. But there was something else that joined that chill in his veins, from the back of his mind, absolute seething rage. In comparison to his fear, the loathing burned and Avery was left stranded between the two warring sensations as they tore at him.

"Heads up freak!" While he froze, Christopher had sprung into action catching the thing off guard as he threw one of the boxes of old papers at it. The box hit, the creature screamed and Avery fell away – once again in control of his body.

Amir followed Christopher's example, using the opportunity to leap over the collapsed form of the creature for the door. He had it open and was shouting for people to make a break for it before the thing could regain it's senses.

Of course Christopher, the softhearted boy, turned to go back for Avery. The thing was on its feet by now, putting it between Avery and the door. The gas was already gliding over his ankles and Avery made a judgment call.

"Christopher! Jam the door!" There was a momentary hesitation from him. The refusal clear as day on his face as Christopher argued with himself on leaving Avery.

Oh but he was such a clever boy that one.

He looked at the situation; saw the obstacle and distance between them as well as the gas already moving past Avery towards the door everyone had just escaped down. Then he did exactly what Avery had always admired him for – he made the right decision.

"No!" The creature roared rushing for the door just as it slammed shut on its face, effectively shutting it in with Avery and the boy in the corner that had long since fallen silent. Either he'd passed out or died, Avery couldn't tell from where he stood now.

Realising it was going to take time to get the door open again with its difficult fiddling, the creature snarled in frustration before slowly straightening back to its full height.

"How very sentimental, professor." It seethed, peering at Avery over its shoulder. Somehow the mask that hadn't seemed animated when he'd faced it only moments before seemed to be warping into many different shapes now. Avery tried to rationalize that whatever it was he was seeing must have been the result of the gas gradually entering his lungs. "Playing hero are we?"

"Hardly." Avery replied stiffly, trying to appear calmer than he truly was. "However those students are to be my legacy, what I leave behind and there is nothing I would not do to secure their safety."

Briefly the creature seemed to consider this before it began to howl with laughter. "Then you did nothing but give them a few more minutes to run. A few more moments to be coherent and terrified before my fear gas tears their minds apart." Sneering under the mask, the creature began to advance on Avery. "But you, oh  _you_  professor. Well…you barely even have seconds."

"Just what do you plan to do to my students?" Avery demanded, that white-hot anger driving the words out of him even as his fear began to take him by the throat and choke out his senses.

This time when the creature moved Avery saw nothing awkward about it. He'd watched dancers move with less grace than this. It moved too suddenly for Avery to protect himself and while Kallie's attempts to kick it had failed – Avery met with a harsh blow to the side that knocked him clean off his feet and into the cloud of toxin.

The gas choked Avery as it properly invaded his body. Cough as his might Avery couldn't dislodge the horrible substance from his lungs. Stumbling Avery reached out for anything to break his fall, any solid surface to clutch onto. The world tipped on an angle and it was only when it all stopped warping that Avery realised he was on the ground, writhing.

"Oh professor. You really ought to be more concerned about yourself." The creature chastised, approaching Avery as he desperately scrambled back. His cane lost somewhere behind the man, leaving Avery with nothing to balance himself as panic stole his higher senses.

"Your greatest fear. The collapse – wasn't it?" It asked with a slightly mocking tip of its head. "Are you sure you didn't tell a lie, professor?"

Recognition dawned on Avery with a small wave of horror.

"Jonathan…"

"Dr. Crane isn't in right now. Now..." The Scarecrow's voice became a distorted drone in Avery's ears, surrounding him as he combated imagined threats. "What do you see?"

It was not what he did see that bothered Avery, it was what he  _didn't_.

"M-My arm." He gasped, weak arms trembling horrible as he held them out in front of his eyes. "Where is my arm?"

It was right there, dangling in front of his face – clear as day. But Avery saw nothing. His right hand stood out clearly to him but the left, gone, vanished – nothing but an empty void where it should have been. Frantically Avery followed the path of where his hand should have been up to where a wrist ought to be. Elbow to shoulder to throat. Nothing, nothing,  _nothing_. His left leg, gone. The left side of his torso, gone. Nothing, nothing,  _nothing_.

He was incomplete.

Avery Hale screamed.

Then the babbling began. Desperate sobs falling from the professor's lips as all reason was abandoned in his horror. "Not whole. C-Cant not be…can't not be complete. Missing, missing, half  _missing_."

Logic failed him. The one thing he'd always been able to take solace in, left Avery abandoned on the floor of the university attic, clawing desperately at his left arm, still unable to see it. Even as his paper-thin skin gave away under his nails and spilled blood – his mind offered up no register for pain or that there was even skin to break in the first place and Avery just kept clawing.

 _Scratch, scratch, tear and splash._  As the skin gave away and the blood pooled on the ground under him. Scratch, scratch, tear and splash. Avery Hale tore at himself, just desperate to be whole again, never realising he'd lost nothing. Perhaps that was the true horror of it all, he'd lost nothing for there was nothing to lose.

Avery Hale was a man incomplete and despite all his attempts to rectify the feeling – it persisted through his years. Now brought viciously to the surface with the hand of fear. Such a simple thing had the once sturdy man ripping himself apart in front of Scarecrow's eyes.

"My, my professor." Scarecrow crooned, taking a knee by the older man as he tore at himself. "Fancy that, you actually lied to Jonny boy. And you lied  _well_. But there's nothing fear can't unearth, you cannot hide from this."

It seemed that Hale couldn't hear him anymore, it didn't even seem like the man could see him. He was far too lost in his own nightmare for Scarecrow to even make an impact on him. Curious Scarecrow looked down at the fear toxin he'd used. It hadn't overrun the others he'd used it on to quite this extent, perhaps professor Hale's fears were deeper than he initially imagined?

"A result of burying them down since childhood, I'd wager." Scarecrow mused with a cold chuckle. "Now this is  _very_  interesting, professor."

Then through it all Hale's body abruptly stopped its writhing. The jerking and scratching stopping as quickly as it begun and the man lay deathly still. Scarecrow considered that maybe Hale had succumb to the toxin, an allergic reaction perhaps?

Unconcerned albeit a little disappointed with the short lived study of Hale's fears, Scarecrow got back up and prepared to leave.

He had an extremely impressive test pool with the university. He hadn't planned to spend too long with any one person unless there was something exceptional. Scarecrow had been planning this for months and he knew it would be a short lived experiment once the bat got wind of what had happened at the university.

Although Scarecrow had been pleasantly surprised when a few little mice did find their way up to the tower. He'd placed a canister of the fear gas into the old chimney seeing as it was closed up at the top and could easily hide the barrel in it. He'd placed a slightly different concoction of fear gas in that one. Weaker admittedly, and also far slower working. He wanted to see if fear would gradually mount and spiral out of control for those that were exposed.

He'd been unsure if anyone would rush for the tower. Not many knew it didn't have any connections to the central heating system and there weren't too many that would be level headed enough to even register that was what they had to get away from. Oh he'd toyed with the thought of using the air vents again, as he had when disposing of Dr. Long and his board of fools that expelled him from the university.

But no, the heating system was a far more extensive one and the goal was not to kill, these students were his valued test subjects. If one or two died it would be collateral, he could live with that but the aim was not to truly harm these children.

They might understand one day. Might wrap their brains around what he was trying to achieve, but for now they only needed to scream.

As it turned out the precautions he'd taken to assure that even the highest points of the university building would be reached by the gas were well warranted when the group of twelve made it up there. He'd been quite delighted actually; thinking these to be the smarter of the students, although admittedly luck had a hand in their momentary escape as well.

It had worked out as a surprisingly amusing study on the students. First the bickering and fights, then one finally seemed to snap having been exposed to the stronger mix downstairs and started shrieking. After that things had accelerated once he fully released the canister's gas into the room.

The longer the silence persisted without Hale's horrified screams, the more dissatisfied Scarecrow became.

Surely it hadn't been the man's mind that had given out so quickly, professor Hale had managed to be of some use, debate wise, while they worked together. To think the man so easily let his mind, arguably his finest asset, crack in such a short amount of time was nothing short of insulting.

Just as Scarecrow's frustration was beginning to turn to anger at the failings of the other man, there was a twitch.

Scarecrow very nearly missed it from where he stood by the doorway, but sure enough the bleeding man had moved and now Scarecrow could see his chest continued to rise and fall. Evidentially he was still alive and for once Scarecrow found himself soothed by the thought.

He hadn't quite been able to pry everything out of the good professor in one sitting. Demons as deeply buried and exceptional as his were ones Scarecrow could spend hours extracting – with a more careful dosage of toxin next time. He couldn't have Hale passing out on him after only a few minutes into each session.

Now it was time to go see how far the other mice had gotten before succumbing to its effects. The door did prove to be a bit of an issue, but the professor had sent Jonathan up here during his time as a student and so Scarecrow was able to get it open with only a bit of effort. It had surprised him when that other boy got the door open without breaking it himself, it seemed that Hale had sent him up here as well on occasion. This meant that the boy was probably exceptionally bright and had taken Jonathan's place as Avery's favoured student.

Which of course meant Scarecrow was eager to see what types of fears a child like that would have.

Setting out after the escaped students, Scarecrow took a moment to really revel in that night. He'd been skulking around the university for about a week and planning the night for three longer. But he hadn't truly felt like he'd stepped foot in the building again until after donning his costume. Being back at the university, seeing some old faces and truly being able to dive back into his work after months of being away from it.

It was good to be home.


End file.
